Travel, TSA Remain a Mess as Democrat DHS Partial Shutdown Continues
Hobby Airport in Houston encouraged flyers to arrive four to five hours before their plane takes off.
This better stop before I travel to Italy and Poland in May and June. (I’ll be gone for two weeks, but the blog will survive!)
Security lines remain a mess, with travelers facing even longer wait times at TSA checkpoints as the Democratic DHS shutdown continues.
“As TSA officers are facing a $0 paycheck this week, we are seeing firsthand the significant strains that the current DHS shutdown is causing across the aviation system,” stated A4A President and CEO Chris Sununu. “TSA lines are two and three hours long at some airports, causing flights to be delayed and passengers to miss flights.”
Spring break travel should be fun.
“We are in spring break travel season and expecting record numbers of people to take to the skies,” continued Sununu. “Airlines have done their part to prepare; now Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown. America’s transportation security workforce is too important to be used as political leverage.”
The New Orleans Airport advised travelers to arrive 3 hours before their departure time.
Democrats must end this DHS shutdown NOW.
Their political stunt is forcing patriotic TSA officers to work without pay — leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.
Enough is enough. https://t.co/8tRh1N6s22
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 9, 2026
“These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay,” said DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis. “These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”
DHS stopped receiving funding on February 13 after Democrats threw a fit about reforms for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
However, the partial shutdown hasn’t affected ICE or CBP because Congress already allocated those funds.
The partial shutdown has hit TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.
Hobby Airport in Houston encouraged flyers to arrive four to five hours before their flight.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as our federal partners work to maintain the safety of all passengers. pic.twitter.com/dEi3zvKErb
— Hobby Airport (@HobbyAirport) March 8, 2026
“The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again,” added Sununu. “This is simply unacceptable and un-American.”
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Comments
One possibility: Stop searching everybody. Just let people get on the plane, like in the 20th century. Treating every single airline passenger like a suspected criminal has always been stupid.
If fearmongering is necessary, search a randomly selected sample of passengers.
TSA employees are vital to airline security actually. Knowing a TSA agent and how they are trained and take their work seriously, one should be grateful for them every time one gets on a plane.
Cool, let the airport authorities pay for them via increased gate fees and pass on the costs to ticket prices. If we did that and took the burden off the Federal Taxpayer I suspect there’d be an immediate clamor to reduce the ‘TSA’ from the airlines and airport authorities.
Your reply has no bearing on what ninth dimension typed. TSA employees can still do their job by returning to commonsense 20th century security levels.
We have NEVER needed the blanket level of security that current TSA subjugates the average traveler to. Never.
No, they’re not. They’re pure security theater. Last I heard they had never stopped an actual terrorist from boarding a plane.
TSA and DHS were GWB’s payoff to the Democrats to get them on board for the war against the Islamist terrorist network.
Are you comfortable with the fact over 6,000 guns could have been brought on board last year if TSA had not confiscated them from carry on baggage? There have been plenty of incidents lately of unruly, call them lunatics, passengers on planes. Anyone of them could have had a weapon in their carry on …
Yes, I am comfortable with that, since none of those people seem to have been potential terrorists. As far as I know the TSA has never once stopped a terrorist attack. All those normal law-abiding people who forgot a gun in their carry-on were never a threat to anyone. Besides which, many or most of those “6,000 guns” were actually just a cartridge lying unnoticed in a crevice in someone’s carry-on.
On the contrary, not only should we not be banning guns from planes, at boarding we should be handing out guns with frangible ammunition, in case something happens in the air. If the passengers on Flight 93 had been armed maybe they could have done something more than just crashed it.
Profiling works and about that “frontline heroes”. No, they are not heroes for standing at a check in and making you empty your pockets
I agree hero is an overused term.
Yep profiling works and the actual screening process can be returned to the airlines who can charge a security fee. The government unions whose will scream as the TSA loss will delete their bloated ranks.
For those who may not remember the airlines did security for decades prior to 9 11. As a reminder box cutters were permitted at that time so the failure was not screening.
Yeah nah, this is NOT a thing…especially not when you have any number of Democrats motivated to carry out a political attack on an aircraft. If anything, right now is the appropriate time to increase searches at critical transport hubs!
Hear hear! TSA has been a disaster contributing to excessive delays and frustration since its inception. Flight is risky as is driving and other forms of transportation. I don’t believe they contribute to a safer flight. The air Marshalls do! This is and entire government pay scheme and should be eliminated ASAP.
How about a shoot out between an Air Marshall and a crazy passenger with a gun? A nice bumpy ride.
Very unlikely. Far less likely than an armed passenger being able to do something when someone starts something.
The taxpayers don’t fund security at Walmart.
I agree. Stop searching everyone. Profile in a meaningful way as El Al does. We all know the demographic that needs particular attention.
El Al is in Israel, where intelligence and common sense come into play. Here, everyone cowers when someone screams “I was profiled!”.
I knew an Iranian man many years ago, he was an engineer for Siemens and we often worked together. His take was that he’d not mind being profiled at all, along with others who look like him. His reason? “Bear, I can die in a hijacking just as much as anyone else, so, yes! I care about keeping dangerous people off of airplanes.” (A great engineer and also one of the most decent and well-mannered people I ever met.)
I’ve never understood what’s supposed to be wrong with racial profiling. So long as the profile is reasonably accurate, and people aren’t being arrested purely on the basis of the profile, and also the cops aren’t stupid enough to think that a profile is more than an educated guess, why should the fact that it’s racial make a difference?
Think of it this way: Suppose you had an identical twin sibling who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. You can bet you would be stopped and questioned multiple times until your sibling was caught and his picture removed from the list. You might be able to get a letter from the FBI verifying that you’re not the one they’re looking for, but you’d still be stopped and have to show that letter. And no one would have a problem with this. So how is racial profiling any different?
Yeah, right. Wait for racist screeching to begin.
Full court press on the Dems. Every interview, it should be mentioned how the Schumer Shutdown is dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible. Use thier language against them!
They should put up big beautiful signs at the airport saying these long slow lines are brought to you curtesy of the democratic party which doesn’t want to fund DHS. Include the names of the state’s democratic congressman and senators.
All the Dems have are fear and pain to get their way. Much like the mullahs in Iran.
Easy fix. Start limiting TSA (read closing to one lane) operations at every Airport in a State whose Senator is refusing to fund DHS. As an added bonus go ahead and give some ‘comp time’ to Air traffic controllers in those locations as flights into/out of those airports diminish to the reduced volume of passenger screening TSA can handle. Send TSA personnel from those locations to airports in other States whose Senators want to fund them. If the airline hub system changes and these States permanently gain increased gate traffic and the revenue and payrolls that follow while other States lose them ….tough cookies. Hardball is hardball. No whining when your opponent punches you back.
Aren’t certain people (like government employees) given preferential treatment or allowed to skip lines? If so terminate that service. Should be terminated anyway but definitely now.
Are you kidding?!? Government employees are royalty! You are to step aside, bow or curtsey as sex dictates, and address them as Sir or Madam.
Madam? Not according to Barbara Boxer!
But welfare checks continue to be sent without delay.
I despise what the Democrat Party has become, and I loathe the spineless Republicans who are afraid of their own shadows.
With all the fraud those welfare checks entail. I watched a mexican lady yesterday in store. Had to have her son translate because she didn’t speak English. Pulled out a handfull of $100 and $20 bills, gave him some to buy phone cards or game cards or something then used an EBT card to buy milk and soda.
There are many reasons to be over the Republican spinelessness, but what exactly do you expect them to do in this situation? This is one where they aren’t caving (at least not as a group) and standing up to Dem BS.
DHS doesn’t send welfare checks.
The Senate should be holding a vote to force every single Democrat to vote against National Security on a daily basis
The majority can’t force a vote every day. Even with 60 votes to close debate, they must still allow 30 more hours after cloture.
We have TSA for Airlines but really nothing for private jets that the rich and business use. I have given up on travel via airline due to DEI affecting pilots and Air Traffic Control (ATC) plus less maintenance on aircraft. I will travel via auto and rent one plus stay in a motel if needed as I will be safer overall and costs will work out.
As I become more crippled up and motion-impaired, I won’t fly unless it is an emergency or I need to cross an ocean.
Another factor is those “perfectly safe” body scanners that are SO safe they are banned in the EU and other places. I am immunocompromised as it is, been through two cancers and living with a third one. Pass. Yes, I can get a manual inspection and my handicaps are generally respected and I am given courtesy. But, if it is quota-hires, they aren’t exactly friendly to white men.