TSA officers are quitting as a funding standoff forces them to staff airports without pay

Air travelers endure long lines and two-hour wait times at the TSA security check point at Terminal E at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport Friday, March 20, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke) 2026-03-20T19:20:30Z Eviction notices. Vehicle repossessions. Empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts. Union leaders and federal officials say these are just some of the financial pressures Transportation Security Administration agents are facing during an ongoing government funding lapse — the third shutdown in less than six months that has forced the officers who screen airport passengers and luggage to keep working without pay. The public is experiencing the consequences in long wait times at some airports as more TSA officers take time off to earn money on the side or cut back on expenses. At least 376 have quit their jobs altogether since the shutdown began on Valentine’s Day, according to the Department of Homeland Security , exacerbating staff turnover at an agency that historically has had some of the U.S. government’s highest attrition and lowest employee morale. “It’s just exhausting. Every day it just feels like this weight gets heavier and heavier on us,” Cameron Cochems, a local TSA union leader in Boise, Idaho, told The Associated Press. Airport screeners have spent nearly half of the past 170 days with their paychecks held up by politics — 43 days last fall during the longest government shutdown in history, four days earlier this year during a brief funding lapse, and now 35 days and counting during the current shutdown, which affects only the Department of Homeland Security. They are considered essential so have to keep showing up for work whether they get paid or not. Cochems, who has worked as a TSA agent for more than four years and is vice president of his regional American Federation of Government Employees chapter, said the number of resignations likely doesn’t fully capture the extent of the agency’s personnel challenges. He thinks m

原文链接: AP News