POLITICS JANUARY 7, 2019 / 3:45 PM / UPDATED 21 HOURS AGO

U.S. House committee queries airport staffing during shutdown

David Shepardson
2 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security committee has asked the Trump administration how it is ensuring adequate staff at airports as some transportation employees fail to show up for work due to a partial U.S. government shutdown.

Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, also asked the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the exact number of employees who are calling in sick and if the agency has a contingency plan for future mass absences or resignations of its screeners.

More than 50,000 TSA officers are working without pay during the shutdown that began Dec. 22. They will be paid for back wages when the government reopens.

“TSA officers are among the lowest paid federal employees, with many living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Thompson wrote in a letter Monday released by his office.

“Officers may not be able to pay for rent, child care, and other necessities if their paychecks do not arrive on time... It is only reasonable to expect officer call outs and resignations to increase the longer the shutdown lasts, since no employee can be expected to work indefinitely without pay.”

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