The number of airport-security screeners not coming into work is increasing significantly around the country as the federal government’s partial shutdown goes into week four.
The Transportation Security Administration reported no-show screeners went up Sunday and this continued into Monday. TSA says the national absence rate is 7.6 percent compared to only 3.2 percent a year ago.
Monday was the first time since the shutdown began that screeners did not get a paycheck.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport, where it took more than an hour for many passengers to get through security.
“It’s chaos out here,” traveler Vincent Smith told the Associated Press as he stood in line. “This line, I’ve been here about 15 minutes and it has moved 2 feet.”
Still, Smith said he could relate to government workers who weren’t getting paid.
“If I was a government worker, yes, I would probably call in and try to do something else because creditors don’t care if you’re furloughed or not,” he said. “They just want to get paid and with a family of six, you have to do what you have to.”
No shows with airport security screeners soars. Double than on a regular day after 1st paycheck missed due to government shutdown. #fox35 https://t.co/ndTRPrY57l
— Bob Frier (@Fox35Bob) January 15, 2019
“In Atlanta, Monday’s long wait times come with less than three weeks remaining before the city hosts one of the world’s biggest sporting events,” AP reports. “Super Bowl 53 on Feb. 3 is expected to bring hordes of travelers to Atlanta for the game and days of concerts and related events.”
“We’re confident that we will be as efficient and as welcoming as people expect the city of Atlanta to be here at Hartsfield-Jackson for the Super Bowl,” airport spokesman Andrew Gobeil said.
It will be interesting to see if the stress of not only airport workers but travelers adds to the mounting pressure on Washington to end the shutdown.
As of now, President Trump isn’t backing down on his border wall, which he insists must be part of any new budget deal, and Democrats are still refusing to even consider the idea.
This is the longest government shutdown in American history and so, naturally, the effects will be more monumental than other shutdowns.
Don’t expect airport screeners no-showing to be the last story you hear about this mess.