TSA officers are the latest aviation workers to be used as ‘political pawns.’ They just want the shutdown to end

Washington, DC (CNN) — For over a month, Transportation Security Administration employees have been showing up to work at US airports without getting paid.

It’s the same song all over again for these security workers who have endured three lapses in funding during the last six months.

The employees have become “political pawns” in these increasingly frequent Washington battles, missing paychecks as lawmakers jockey to see who will take the blame for the pain inflicted.

And usually, it doesn’t get better until things get worse for the workers.

“The real leverage points should be (lawmakers being) worried about their constituents,” said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of AFGE TSA Council 100, the TSA union. “They should be really worried about making sure that they uphold the Oath of the Constitution, like the TSA officers do.”

Yet Congress remains in a stalemate over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats and Republicans are locked in a disagreement over something that has almost nothing to do with airline travel – immigration reform.

Late last year, a 43-day government-wide shutdown, the longest in US history, ended after many TSA officers and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers stopped showing up to work, disrupting travel. Union leaders say many had to take other jobs to make ends meet.

Lawmakers blame opponents for TSA workers going unpaid

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle point fingers at their political opponents for what is happening to TSA workers.

Sen. Katie Boyd Britt, a Republican from Alabama, said in a post on X that Democrats are to blame for making TSA employees miss more than two months of paychecks during the recent shutdowns.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” Britt said in her post. “Democrats need to end their political posturing, stop using our TSA agents as political pawns, and fully fund DHS.”

Republicans want all of DHS funded while Democrats want immigration reform included, or will support partial funding, leaving out money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection.

“TSA agents should not go without pay because Republicans refuse to agree to commonsense reforms,” Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington State, said in a statement. “It has become all too clear that Republicans would rather keep DHS shut down than work with Democrats to prevent more Americans from being killed by masked federal agents.”

The shutdown is a “self-inflicted wound” that doesn’t have to happen, but is “due to partisan politics,” said John Pistole, former TSA administrator in the Obama administration.

“Many of these TSA employees are newer, in their first five years of employment,” Pistole said. “They’ve gone a paycheck and a half now without being paid… so it is becomes a very practical problem.”

The official administration DHS Instagram has placed blame on Democrats, saying they “continue to play games with the livelihoods of our TSA officers and their families.”

And Democrats blame Republicans for not supporting standalone legislation.

“I’ll go down to the floor today and try to pass a bill to pay our TSA agents. So how about you all put your money where your mouth is and don’t block it?” Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, said to Senate Republicans on X.

Lawmakers have the power to end the shutdown, and ultimately if it gets bad enough they will act, said Erik Hansen, senior vice president and head of government relations for the US Travel Association.

“In the past, wait times, excessive wait times, have put pressure on Congress to find a deal,” Hansen said. “Congress should be so lucky that it’s just wait times that pressure them to a deal, and not something worse happening, like a security lapse.”

There have been a few pieces of legislation proposed that would keep paying federal employees during shutdowns, but none appear to be moving forward since the shutdown ended last fall.

The Shutdown Fairness Act and the Keep America Flying Act would pay certain federal workers in the event of a funding lapse, including TSA employees.

Another bill, the Aviation Funding Stability Act of 2025, which could cover air traffic controller salaries during a shutdown, does not have a provision for TSA.

What has it taken to end previous shutdowns?

Air travel has been at the center of many of the past shutdowns simply because aviation workers come in contact with so many people – from a lawmaker on Capitol Hill jetting home to an average American flying to a vacation.

In the 2018-2019 shutdown, 10% of TSA workers scheduled to work on a Sunday took the day off, with many employees citing “financial limitations” preventing them from showing up.

The resulting security delays, coupled with 10 air traffic controllers in two key locations being absent, caused travel gridlock and put pressure on lawmakers who soon passed a short-term funding measure.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends, according to a 2019 law. When the government reopened after last fall’s funding lapse, workers got their money within several days.

While past shutdowns may have ended when the pain experienced by federal aviation workers reached a breaking point, it’s “absolutely reckless” to use TSA officers as political pawns, Hansen said. “It slows down our economy. It frustrates travelers. It means that airlines and travel businesses lose billions of dollars, and that should not have to be the price that we pay for Congress to do its job.”

For TSA workers, all they can do is wait for lawmakers to reach a deal so their paychecks start coming again.

“Unfortunately, it seems like there’s no action going on, and people are getting ready to go out for Easter break,” Jones said. “There ain’t gonna be no Easter eggs, no chocolate, no nothing for the TSA officer to get their family… because they don’t have no money for food. They don’t have no money for rent.”

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