TSA workers grapple with loss of first paycheque: ‘I don’t want to depend on anybody else’

People wait in line at a TSA security checkpoint at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas on March 10. (Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Washington, D.C. — A father and Transportation Security Administration officer said he “crumbled” when one of his children asked whether he needed money in the wake of the four-week-long government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

“I’ve always been self-motivated,” said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees’ TSA Council 100, in an interview with CNN. “I wanted to take care of myself. I don’t want to depend on anybody else for anything, because people depend on me.”

He’s one of about 61,000 TSA employees that must keep working during the shutdown. Funding for DHS lapsed in mid-February amid a standoff between Republicans and Democrats over federal immigration enforcement. This weekend, these workers will miss their first full paycheque, just as the spring break travel season heats up.

TSA employees just went through the longest government shutdown in American history late last year, not getting paid for the hours they worked until weeks after it was over. Then, in February, they stopped getting paycheques again when funding for their department ran out.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends, according to a 2019 law, but getting by until then can be hard.

“A lot of people don’t have that (stability). They never recover,” Jones said. “They don’t have the levers to pull to help them weather the storm, I’m afraid. I’m seeing desperation in the eyes of my coworkers.”

TSA workers make an average salary of $35,000, according to Airlines for America.

The agency’s leadership is also aware of the hardship that employees are facing and how their struggles can affect their work. Many staffers live paycheque to paycheque, Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior official performing the duties of TSA administrator, said in written testimony for a House subcommittee hearing before the funding lapsed.

“During a shutdown, the ability to pay for rent, bills, groceries, child care, and gas just to get to work becomes very challenging, leading to increased unscheduled absences (call outs) as a shutdown progresses,” she said. “Higher call outs can result in longer wait times at chequepoints, leading to missed or delayed flights, which has a cascading negative impact on the American economy.”

Keith Jeffries is a former federal security director at Los Angeles International Airport and current vice president of K2 Security Screening Group. He said spring break is approaching, and it’s US airports’ “busy season.”

“You have federal employees, TSA employees, that are forced to make a decision on, ‘Do I go to work or stay home with my children, because I don’t have the money to have someone stay with them?’” he said.

‘We take hits and hope we don’t get fired’

In some ways, this shutdown is even worse than the record-long fall impasse, said one longtime TSA officer, who works at a Texas airport.

The agency now wants detailed doctor’s notes for every day an employee calls in sick. Last year it was only after three sick days, said the officer, who asked for anonymity to protect his employment. And some physicians are hesitant to provide all the requested information, particularly on how the illness impairs the worker’s ability to do the job.

“If we can’t afford to go to the doctor, we take hits and hope we don’t get fired,” the officer said.

Still, absences are up as TSA staffers try to keep up with their bills after receiving only a partial paycheque at the end of February, the last one they’ll receive until after the shutdown ends, the officer said. Some are finding it difficult to go to work when they can’t afford gas or child care, not to mention food and rent.

And more of them are reaching out to the agency’s peer-to-peer support line with concerns about their mounting expenses and frustrations over not getting paid.

The officer had to take off from work recently because he couldn’t afford gas after receiving only one-third of his typical paycheque at the end of last month. He had to borrow money to fill up his tank, which he hopes will last the rest of the week.

Plus, he had to tap into his retirement account to cover part of his March rent, after working out a deal with his landlord to pay the final $1,000 later. This comes as the officer is still struggling to repay loans he took out during the 43-day shutdown in the fall.

“I put myself in debt to serve the American people,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

That financial distress, combined with an increase in people travelling for spring break, led to longer airport security lines at the officer’s airport and others around the nation for several days in early March.

Community support

When the government shut down last fall, Cameron Cochems sprang into action. The TSA officer and Idaho vice president of AFGE Local 1127 developed connections with local government officials and nonprofit groups to support his colleagues, who were working without pay.

Those relationships have proven vital once again. A grassroots community group last week dropped off about $2,500 worth of rice, beans, pasta, toilet paper and other items at his home for him to distribute to his coworkers. And the Boise Airport has placed food boxes for travellers to donate to TSA staffers.

Cochems has also needed the help, especially because his wife was recently laid off from her job as a pharmacy technician. Since he’s not expecting to get a paycheque at the end of this week, he is reluctantly taking $10,000 from his retirement fund to cover his car insurance payment, his wife’s car loan, groceries and other necessities.

The experience has left him questioning the benefit of being a federal employee, which typically entails a stable paycheque, a stable career and good work-life balance, Cochems said.

“I have none of that,” he said.

Other airports are also asking travellers to support TSA workers. Denver International Airport posted on X a plea to donate $10 and $20 grocery store and gas gift cards. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas are requesting donations of non-perishable food, hygiene products and infant supplies to food pantries they have opened for staffers. Pocatello Regional Airport in Idaho is accepting donations of food, household supplies and gift cards.

The shutdowns have also affected some TSA workers and their families physically and emotionally.

One officer in Nashville and his wife have suffered health issues since the fall impasse because of the stress. The couple has had to borrow money from family to keep a roof over their and their two young children’s heads. And they have not been able to afford needed work on the old cars they drive.

Adding to the strain are the warnings from supervisors that taking a day off could be considered absent without leave, or AWOL. The couple felt that pressure when the officer recently couldn’t go to work because their child had a fever.

“The question of whether or not we can take care of a sick baby is more stress we don’t need on our hands and wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the shutdown,” the wife told CNN.

Is the end near?

It’s still unclear what will push lawmakers to reach a deal to end the shutdown.

“Pay them,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries exclaimed when asked what Congress could be doing to mitigate this shutdown.

He pointed to the conflict with Iran and said screeners should be focused on keeping American passengers safe, not worrying about their paycheques.

“We’re a country at war,” the Democratic leader said. “I love this country just as much as all these federal employees do. They love it just as much. There’s a basic understanding in this great country of ours, when you are scheduled to go to work, you show up for work, but when you show up for work, there’s also a basic expectation that you get paid.”

DHS also shut down some programs designed to move travellers through airports quickly, as some of the “emergency measures” taken during the shutdown.

Within the first week of the lapse in funds, DHS announced it would close TSA Precheque, which allowed enrolled travellers to speed through airport security, and Global Entry, which allowed quicker passage through US Customs. DHS quickly rolled back on the decision on Precheque, which remains open.

Global Entry, however, remained closed, greeting passengers arriving from other countries with long lines at regular customs chequepoints. It finally reopened Wednesday.

“Those are political decisions,” Jeffries said. “There’s no security gain in that. None whatsoever.”

During a White House press briefing Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump wants TSA workers to receive their paycheques. She blamed Democrats for the “partisan games” being played on Capitol Hill.

“To any American out there who is showing up to an airport and facing incredibly long wait times in lines, call your Democrat member of Congress and tell them to fund the Department of Homeland Security,” Leavitt siad. “It’s completely ridiculous that the American people are suffering as a result.”

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said they were willing to fund TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard while they continued to negioate immigration, but he blamed Republicans for blocking that effort.

Alexandra Skores, Tami Luhby, CNN