ATLANTA (AP) — Regardless of politics or destination, American air travelers were unified by one desire Saturday: it’s time to pay Transportation Security Administration employees.
Christian Childress, a private flight attendant, sees the aviation system up close. When the Redwood City, California, resident is working, he doesn’t wait in TSA lines. But he frequently goes through a checkpoint when flying commercial to get to his job.
Childress said the shutdown effects have been “hit or miss” thus far. He came to the Atlanta airport nearly three hours before his 1:30 p.m. Saturday flight to Nashville, Tennessee, for a leisure trip. Some passengers have been arriving even earlier in Atlanta — one of the world’s busiest airports — spooked that delays could cause them to miss flights.
“Issue No. 1 should be paying the people who need to get paid and keeping our air travel system secure,” Childress said. “Then they can debate whatever they want to debate about homeland security.”
TSA officers haven’t gotten a paycheck since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security partly shut down on Feb. 14. Democrats balked at funding the agency, while other departments are unaffected, demanding changes to immigration enforcement by federal agents following the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.