TSA Security Lines Are Dragging On for Hours, and Airports Say to Brace for More

Honestly, don't tell me you still fly commercial. Isn't your time worth anything?

BTW, I love our pilot Frans.

TSA Security Lines Are Dragging On for Hours, and Airports Say to Brace for More

Airport security workers have been working without pay after Department of Homeland Security’s funding lapsed last month

By Allison Pohle, WSJ

March 9, 2026 3:11 pm ET

A partial government shutdown is contributing to hourslong security checkpoint delays at airports.

Airports are warning travelers to prepare to spend hours in security checkpoint lines, with the partial government shutdown stretching federal security workers.

Security checkpoint wait times at airports in Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans and Charlotte, N.C., stretched to nearly an hour or longer on Sunday, and airport officials told travelers to expect continued delays as spring-break travel ramps up while the shutdown continues.

“We’re seeing strong travel demand with fewer screening lanes open at some checkpoints,” said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, in a statement posted to social media.

At Houston’s Hobby Airport, travelers said they missed flights Sunday after waiting for more than three hours in long lines that snaked around the length of the concourse. The airport advised passengers to arrive four hours before their flight to allow for TSA delays.

In New Orleans, passengers posted videos of lines that spilled into the parking garage.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration, has been largely shut down since Feb. 14, when federal funding lapsed without a new appropriation from Congress. The agency’s approximately 50,000 TSA officers received a partial paycheck on Feb. 28 and are set to miss their first full paycheck this week.

The current funding lapse represents the second extended shutdown for TSA workers in less than six months. In 2025, they worked without pay during the record-long, 43-day government shutdown.

Starting annual pay for a TSA officer is in the low $40,000 range, said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer for the union representing TSA workers. The majority of the workforce lives paycheck to paycheck, he said, and because workers had just come out of last fall’s federal government shutdown, their financial cushions are depleted.

Jones said that some airport security officers are now taking side jobs, such as food delivery, to cover bills, and some have donated plasma. “Last time I checked, Kroger doesn’t take an IOU,” Jones said.

Senate Democrats voted for the third time last week to block spending to fund DHS, citing concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement drive. Only one Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted with Republicans in a 51-45 tally, leaving them short of the 60-vote threshold.

The same measure has passed in the House, but can’t move forward without the Senate.

Most of the Senate Democratic caucus has been opposed to any short-term stopgap funding until their issues over immigration enforcement are addressed. A DHS spokeswoman issued a statement Sunday blaming Democrats for the shutdown.