A TSA officer’s badge can be seen on their shirt as people travel through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on November 7, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Passengers at several airports waited in hours-long security lines this week as the government’s shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security dragged on.
Although Transportation Security Administration officers are required by law to work during the funding pause, more than usual were absent after receiving only partial pay last pay period. TSA officers will lose their entire paycheck this weekend if the shutdown remains in effect.
On Wednesday, it appeared the end of the shutdown was not imminent as the U.S. Senate rejected a bill that would have funded TSA and other agencies within DHS not related to immigration enforcement.
Meanwhile, TSA officers are not being paid.
Most live paycheck to paycheck, said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of Council 100 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA agents.
Jones added that lack of pay contributes to absenteeism. The union does not tolerate coordinated unwell leave, which is illegal.
However, individual officers miss work for one of three reasons during the shutdown, he said: pre-scheduled time off, legitimate illness or personal emergencies, and people calling in unwell but looking for another job to pay the bills.
“If you were getting paid normally, you wouldn’t have this third group,” he said.
Jones added that some workers skip lunch or make other sacrifices. He also said two colleagues were evicted during the last shutdown last fall, which lasted 43 days.
The US war with Iran that has estimated price in the billions of dollars in just the first two weeks, has also created resentment among TSA employees, Jones said.
“One of the things I’ve heard from colleagues is that we have plenty of money to fight wars and bomb Iran, but we can’t pay our own workers,” he said.
Long lines
No unusually long wait times were reported on Wednesday, but we have seen several examples of tight security lines over the past few days.
Security lines exceeded three hours on Monday and Tuesday at the international airport. William P. Hobby in Houston.
On Monday at the international airport. Louis Armstrong in New Orleans, queues reached up to two hours, and the airport’s social media directly indicated the line closure.
“Due to the impact of the partial federal government shutdown, security checkpoints continue to lack TSA staff…resulting in longer than average lines” – Airport X Account sent.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport also urged passengers to allow additional time to take into account factors such as “TSA staffing constraints.”
CBS News reported on Wednesday that more than 300 TSA agents have left their jobs since the suspension began. TSA officials did not respond to messages seeking confirmation of that number.
Senate blockade
Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, asked the Senate on Wednesday for unanimous consent to approve a bill that would fund all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the secretary’s office.
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who chairs the Homeland Security Financing Subcommittee, dissented.
Murray’s bill “would effectively defund our law enforcement officers whose job it is to keep Americans safe,” Britt said.
Each side blamed the other for the impasse that has remained unbroken since department funding expired on Feb. 14.
After the January fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by immigration officials in Minneapolis, Democrats are demanding a change in the behavior of immigration agencies as a condition of funding the department.
Republicans have said they are willing to negotiate on the issue, but the sides disagree on what to do in the meantime for the department, which also includes the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Republican leaders sought to pass a short-term resolution to continue funding the entire department, but Democrats rejected it, saying it would allow immigration agencies to operate without adding accountability measures.
“Right now, TSA agents are going without pay because Republicans and the White House have decided they would rather shut down the entire DHS than make some very basic reforms to stop ICE and the Border Patrol,” Murray said. “We also want funding from TSA and FEMA, but we won’t be blackmailed into writing a blank check to ICE to do it.”
Politics was quoted
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota said Democrats have stopped negotiating DHS funding in an effort to keep the issue alive before the November midterm elections.
“Americans are tired,” he said. “Airport lines are getting longer because TSA is not funded. Americans want us to do our job. Republicans are at the table. We are ready to work on a solution. Democrats are gone.”
Jones, an AFGE member and TSA official, declined to say which approach to short-term funding is better, but said funding the federal government is up to Congress.
“We all take the same oath under the same Constitution,” he said. “Now my job function is slightly different from theirs, so they have to do their job so I can do mine.”
