6 min Click here to listen to this article

Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print

Copy Link URL Copied!

This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

Roughly 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers are expected to go a second pay period without a check as the argument over funding for the Department of Homeland Security heads into its seventh week.

Many Americans were already troubled by the images of masked federal immigration officers without warrants breaking down doors and using excessive force on women and children. After the killing of two Americans in Minneapolis sparked weeks of outrage and congressional hearings, the White House made changes in leadership by removing the head of Homeland Security and reassigning the Border Patrol commander. Democrats demand changes in accountability and training.

Because of the nation’s divide over brutal immigration enforcement, Congress has been at this impasse since February. If that seems like a long time to you, perhaps as you wait in an hours-long airport line, do keep in mind: TSA agents haven’t been paid since Valentine’s Day … and we’re approaching Easter.

Looking to bring the officers some relief is Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who is again touting a bill she introduced last fall when the government was shut down and airport security officers weren’t being paid. Dingell also referenced the 2018-2019 shutdown, when “hundreds of TSA officers called out sick or resigned after going weeks without pay, resulting in long security lines, missed flights and temporary terminal closures at major airports.”

“This bill makes sure their hard work is respected and their paychecks continue by redirecting unnecessary spending from President Trump’s ‘One Big Ugly Bill,’” Dingell said in a statement. “Keeping TSA fully funded during a shutdown isn’t just about fairness, it’s about maintaining national security and public confidence in air travel.”

I’m not much for “whataboutism,” however it seems to me that when Democrats won the White House and took control of Congress back in 2020, there was an opportunity or two for the party to pass a law freeing TSA officers from Washington’s pollution, to “keep air travel safe,” as Dingell’s bill aims to do. Yet for whatever reason, here we are in 2026, approaching a decade since that 2018 shutdown, and TSA agents are still political pingpong balls, living check to check … without knowing when their next check will come.

Congress has always known of this vulnerability, of course, because senators and representatives are the ones in charge of the nation’s purse. Shamefully, neither party will prioritize this element of national security so that it won’t be dragged repeatedly into political theater.

The 9/11 terrorist attack prompted the creation of TSA in just over two months. Before then, most of the nation’s airport security was provided by private contractors with high turnover. We didn’t nationalize our security until we learned the hijackers had been able to walk on board without any real scrutiny. The agency wasn’t created so lawmakers could have another lever to pull in negotiations. The nation had just been attacked, thousands died, and we were afraid. The TSA was meant to calm some of those fears.

Given that we are currently at war with Iran, a country that openly wishes for our death and that finances a lot of terrorist groups, it just doesn’t seem like the right time to have that agency under unnecessary stress.

But Dingell’s bill does not address the fundamental issue that this particular shutdown has exposed and that is the fact the people who are important to our national security, people like TSA agents, are being paid so little that they can’t afford to miss a paycheck without life falling apart. The bill Dingell introduced simply allows them to go back to living a paycheck-to-paycheck life regardless of what happens in Washington. A more appropriate bill given the circumstances we all are now witnessing would guarantee a base salary raise so that people who are working for the TSA don’t have to worry about whether they can feed their children.

People are not quitting as a political statement. They just can’t afford to wait for Congress. A TSA agent base salary of $35,000 isn’t considered poor when using the official rubric established in the 1960s. Back then, food was the most expensive item in a household — estimated to cost a third of weekly income. The other two-thirds was meant for housing and other necessities. That was a long time ago, and now the most expensive item is housing. In Dingell’s district in Michigan, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is roughly $1,500 — more than half the base rate’s take-home pay.

Since 2011, the country has incorporated a secondary metric for measuring poverty that considers rent, health insurance and utilities in addition to food costs. Using that formula, according to our own government, a base pay of $35,000 is near poverty.

Why are we paying agents so little for something we clearly need so much? Absentmindedly treating airport security labor as a commodity left us vulnerable in a pre-9/11 world. However, intentionally treating it as an expendable pawn in 2026 is just foolishness.

As each party tries to win the PR war during this partial government shutdown, elected officials on both sides of the aisle are asking Americans to thank TSA agents for working without pay. Considering that when they are being paid, missing a single paycheck still could unravel their lives, even in normal times we should be thanking them for working at all.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

Some wait times at airport bottlenecks are easing with TSA paychecks promised March 30, 2026

Some wait times at airport bottlenecks are easing with TSA paychecks promised

After Trump’s order to pay TSA officers, how soon will airport lines improve? March 28, 2026

After Trump’s order to pay TSA officers, how soon will airport lines improve?

Trump signs executive action to pay TSA workers after House GOP rejects bill to end shutdown March 27, 2026

Trump signs executive action to pay TSA workers after House GOP rejects bill to end shutdown

L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles.

© Los Angeles Times