It Might Take TSA Time to Get Back to Normal, Even After the Shutdown Ends

It seems like deploying ICE to airports has not, at least so far, alleviated the long lines that many are experiencing as they try to fly out of some of the country's biggest airports. Now, President Trump has signed an executive order saying that he's going to pay TSA agents through the shutdown of DHS, which is the chief reason for the long lines. It's unclear whether he has the authority to do that, though.

If TSA does get paid, either by the executive order or because funding to DHS is restored (at least in part), many want to know how long it will take for TSA to get back to normal. Here's what we know.

It's hard to be too definitive about when TSA might get back to normal, in part because we don't know when TSA agents will start getting paid again. Trump said he would sign an executive order for their payment on March 26, but Congress is vested with the power of the purse, so it's unclear how he would give them that money. Even if he did, though, we don't know how soon they would be paid.

Even after they do get paid, though, it might take some time for TSA to get back to normal at many airports across the country. That's because many TSA employees haven't just stopped showing up for work, they've actually quit their jobs entirely. Once DHS can pay TSA agents, they will need to start hiring new agents at many locations across the country, which means airports could stay backed up for some time.

"You still don’t know if these people have taken on other jobs and are still calling out to work two jobs at once," travel expert Sally French told New York Magazine. "And many of the employees still working right now are probably getting increasingly burnt out. Again, they’re humans, and it’s not unreasonable for them to think, Finally, I got a paycheck. I just need to go take a vacation myself. So the day the shutdown ends, I would not expect lines to immediately shorten."

The reason we don't really know when TSA will be back to normal is, first and foremost, because we still aren't sure when they're going to be paid. If President Trump manages to circumvent Congress so they can get paid, they could start receiving pay as soon as next week. Ultimately, though, the permanent solution to this problem has to come from Congress, who are in charge of paying TSA agents.

Thankfully, the Senate also agreed on March 26 night that they would fund DHS with the exception of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, which is the area where Senators can't come to an agreement. That funding would still have to pass the House, but if it does, it could mean that TSA agents start receiving paychecks pretty soon, and the work of fixing long lines can get underway.