Some Wait Times At Airport Are Easing With TSA Paychecks Promised
Transportation Security Administration officers began receiving back pay on Monday, more than 40 days after the Department of Homeland Security shutdown began. President Trump’s executive order directed the agency to pay its officers due to concerns over airport wait times and worker absences. Most officers received retroactive checks for pay periods 4 and 5, with pay period 3 still outstanding for many. The partial payments brought relief to TSA workers, but ongoing issues with overtime pay calculations and tax withholdings remain. The American Federation of Government Employees expressed frustration over the situation and called for a full appropriations deal to fund all unpaid workers in the Department of Homeland Security.
In the meantime, White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that ICE agents deployed to help TSA officers maintain security would remain in place until the airports return to “normal operations.”
When money starts to flow into federal workers’ bank accounts again, security lines should improve relatively quickly, according to travel experts.
On Saturday, the TSA officer call-out rate had improved slightly, but was still roughly five times its normal level, with more than 10%, or nearly 2,900 TSA workers failing to show up to work, according to the agency.
“TSA officers are grateful to President Trump and Secretary Mullin for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown,” the statement reads. “Working without pay forced more than 500 officers to leave TSA and thousands were forced to call out.”
The TSA noted that a “small population” might experience a “slight delay” in receiving paychecks for reasons varying from financial institution processing times to problems with direct deposit.
“We are working aggressively with USDA’s National Finance Center to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible,” the statement concludes.
