Travelers face long lines at airports after TSA workers miss first full paycheck

Travelers continue to face long lines at airports across the U.S. due to the partial government shutdown affecting TSA agents. 

Congress is deadlocked over Democrats’ demands for immigration changes, and as a result, TSA employees missed their first full paycheck on Friday. Since the start of the funding lapse, more than 300 TSA employees have quit, and call-out rates have more than doubled, according to data obtained exclusively by CBS News.

Sunday saw the highest call-out rate during the partial shutdown so far, with 10.19% of staff at all airports calling out, according to TSA data as of Monday. The previous highest call-out day so far was Saturday, when 9.25% of staff called out.

The airports with the highest call-out rates as of Monday were the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Pittsburgh International Airport, according to the TSA data.

Over the weekend, some travelers dealt with long lines at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport amid the trifecta of spring break, an incoming storm and TSA staffing shortages.

In Austin, Texas, the airport posted pictures online of a crowded departures hall.

In Atlanta, the screening checkpoint was jam-packed, too, with a wait time at one point of nearly two hours. 

Chris Sununu, who leads the lobbying group Airlines for America, called for employees to be paid, asking: “What else is more important than paying your own workers?”

“Have your political fights on the side, but don’t drag down the entire traveling American public because of it,” he said.

Airlines for America represents a number of airlines whose CEOs sent a letter to Congress on Sunday pushing for action, after TSA officers received a $0 paycheck.

“That is simply unacceptable,” the CEOs wrote in the letter. “It’s difficult, if not impossible, to put food on the table, put gas in the car and pay rent when you are not getting paid.”

Both political parties are pointing fingers at one another. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Fox News that he hopes “Democrats will come to their senses, open up DHS.”

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said on “Face the Nation” that “if we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else, with the budget that the Republicans laid out.” 

In a social media post on Saturday, President Trump thanked the TSA agents going to work while not being paid, and blamed Democrats for the ongoing shutdown.