With more than 30 percent of Transportation Security Administration officers absent from work at several airports across the United States this week, a senior T.S.A. official warned on Tuesday that the ongoing partial government shutdown may force the closure of small U.S. airports.
In an appearance on Fox News, Adam Stahl, the acting deputy administrator of the T.S.A., said that if the shutdown continues, “it’s not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if call-out rates go up.”
Nick Dyer, a T.S.A. spokesman, explained in a phone interview that airports would be closed only if so few T.S.A. officers showed up to work at an airport that they were unable to fully staff a security checkpoint. He did not comment on how soon any closures might take place or which airports could be affected, saying only that any decisions would be made “on a case-by-case basis.”
About 50,000 T.S.A. officers have been working without pay since Feb. 14, when Congress let funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the T.S.A., expire over a disagreement on immigration enforcement.
More than 10 percent of T.S.A. officers across the United States did not show up for work on Sunday and Monday, the highest rates of absence during the shutdown so far, according to D.H.S. A growing number of T.S.A. employees have picked up second jobs to pay their bills, sometimes calling out sick to do so, and on Tuesday the department said 366 officers had quit since the shutdown began. A growing number of airports across the country have seen hourslong security wait times as a result.
More than 37 percent of T.S.A. officers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world’s busiest airport, did not show up for work on Monday, according to D.H.S. The absence rate at Kennedy Airport in New York on Monday was more than 30 percent, and more than 20 percent at LaGuardia Airport. The highest single-day call-out rate was on Saturday at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, when 55 percent of T.S.A. officers were absent.
In the Fox News interview, Mr. Stahl warned of “significant pain” ahead, predicting passengers could soon face three- or four-hour wait times. “This is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.
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Gabe Castro-Root is a travel reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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