TSA Chief Issues Clear Warning Amid Shutdown Airport Chaos
The ongoing partial government shutdown has been a nightmare for airports around the country. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are without pay, with many quitting altogether, leading to staffing shortages and ridiculously long security lines.
Delays at some airports have reached three hours long, and Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl issued a sobering warning about the future in an appearance on NewsNation this week.
'Going to get worse'
Stahl told NewsNation's Blake Berman that the longer this situation goes unresolved, things are going to worsen at airhubs around the country.
“It will vary very much airport to airport,” Stahl said, via KXAN. “Callout rates are one of many factors that help to inform our security footprint at every single airport, but again I can tell you, this is going to get worse before it gets better, particularly if we don’t have a resolution within the coming days and weeks.”
Full airport shutdowns are possible
Earlier this week, during another media appearance, Stahl cautioned that some airports could be forced to shut down totally for a period of time due to staffing problems.
Stahl declined to say which airports are most at risk, but did say smaller facilities are likely to be most effected. The senior TSA official repeated that message during his segment on NewsNation.
“As this goes on without any sort of resolution from Congress, particularly from Senate Democrats, our folks will continue to call out,” Stahl said.
“And so again, small airports may be particularly impacted because they have fewer lanes and they have fewer people, and so, if a certain three or four out of 10 employees call out, we may, to ensure we’re not degrading security, we may have to temporarily suspend operations at those airports."
What's next?
The Department of Homeland Security shutdown is now in its fifth week, and thus far, both the White House and Capitol Hill Democrats have been unwilling to budge on their positions.
We'll see if the current situation getting more desperate causes either side to reconsider.