The Transportation Security Administration warned that a government shutdown could mean long waits for travelers trying to get through security screening at airports.
Security lines during busy periods at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport can already extend to 40 minutes in standard screening and 20 minutes long in PreCheck lines.
That could get significantly worse, with wait times reaching an hour and a half in January 2019 during the last government shutdown.
A shutdown appears likely as House Republicans on Friday again failed to move key appropriations bills. If new funding isn’t approved before the government reaches the end of its fiscal year on Saturday, a shutdown would follow on Sunday.
TSA’s roughly 1,200 people on its screening staff at Hartsfield-Jackson would be deemed essential employees and would have to work without pay.
“We’re prepared for it,” said Robert Spinden, TSA’s federal security director in Atlanta.
But during the last shutdown, which lasted 34 days, there were “growing numbers of TSA officers saying they were unable to work,” according to TSA, citing the experience of TSA Administrator David Pekoske during the last shutdown.
“It’s very, very hard for anybody to go for 20 days, 30 days, 40 days or longer without receiving a paycheck. It impacts the ability of people to get to work, to pay to put gas in their vehicles, to pay for parking,” TSA said in a written statement. “It impacts their ability to pay the individuals that provide care for their children.”
The federal employees will get paid Oct. 2 for the current pay period, according to Spinden. But if there is a shutdown, that could affect their next paycheck scheduled for Oct. 16.
Air traffic controllers who work for the Federal Aviation Administration would also be deemed essential and have to work without pay.
Across Georgia, there are more than 1,700 TSA officers in Georgia and 577 air traffic controllers, according to the White House.
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