Joel Szabat, former acting undersecretary of transportation, told a prominent cable news program hosted by Greta Van Susteren on Friday that he expects conditions at airports to improve as Transportation Security Administration employees begin receiving pay.
As the Department of Homeland Security funding lapse continues, President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring that TSA agents be paid.
TSA employees have gone without pay since the lapse began in mid-February.
Szabat cautioned that improvements at airports may not be immediate.
“A lot of these workers have taken second jobs for cash flow to make bill payments and presumably are on leave until the end of the month,” Szabat said. “It could take three days, four days or longer before we see them. They won’t receive that first paycheck until early next week.”
Szabat noted that airports using private security have generally operated more smoothly during the funding lapse.
He explained that differences between private and public security operations reflect policy choices.
“One could implement a system where TSA agents are paid regardless of whether the government is shut down,” Szabat said. “I was caught in Orlando over the weekend, and that was a trouble spot.”
“The good news today is the trouble spots seem smaller than they were before,” Szabat added. “However, with more spring break travel expected over the weekend, we could see another surge of problems.”
“But by the end of next week, we would expect improvements,” he said. “As long as paychecks are processed and delivered to TSA agents.”
