The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security wrote to the TSA administrator Monday seeking answers on a reported wave of TSA agents calling out of work during the partial government shutdown.
Citing CNN reporting “that hundreds of TSA officers from at least four major airports called out from work last week,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) expressed his concern to TSA Administrator David Pekoske that “if wait times and public pressure increase, some TSA managers may try to manage the effects of the shutdown in ways that are detrimental to security.”
Thompson asked Pekoske how many TSA officers had called out of work each day of the now-17-day shutdown, whether the TSA had any changes to security procedures during the shutdown and whether the agency had plans “to address mass call outs or resignations among its workforce,” among other things.
CNN first reported the letter. Read it in full below:
Plan? Plan?
Why, we’ll build a new wall in every airport.
And make Mexico pay for it.
What security? TSA has been bullshit from Day 1. With any luck, the shutdown and mass absences will reveal TSA and most of the rest of “homeland security” as the authoritarian farces they have always been.
Can’t the general public follow the lead of DeVos and just use their private and corporate jets during the shut down?
Blame Democrats.
With the White House (read: Trump) threatening to extend the shut down for months, what incentive is there for these employees to stay on the job without pay?? They can probably make their regular pay rate at McDonalds during the shutdown (I understand most TSA agents make around $30,000 per year) , thereby actually getting paid money for bills etc. Every time Trump opens his mouth, he adds to the problems