Louisiana Rep says TSA lines shortest in months, contrasts Napolitano projections of 150 to 200 percent increases due to sequester
Despite the administration’s efforts to convince Americans that sequestration would add hours to airport security lines, a House leader from Louisiana revealed that his wait was the shortest in months.
child in wheelchair crying as TSA delayed her flight to Disney screenshot of video coverage of story
“I went to the airport to fly back to DC. It was literally the shortest wait I’ve had in months,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, chairman of the Republican Study Committee. “Maybe it’s because the president has just scared everybody off. If you talk to some of the TSA agents — these are the people that have all the jobs — they don’t know what to expect from the president.” (see video below)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the across-the-board spending cuts that went into effect and were already causing headaches at the nation’s airports.
“Now that we are having to reduce or eliminate basically overtime both for TSA and for customs, now that we have instituted a hiring freeze… we will begin today sending out furlough notices,” Napolitano said, according to Politico.
Lines at some Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, Napolitano added at the event sponsored by Politico, are already “150 to 200 percent as long as we would normally expect.”
“The president has been flying around the country on Air Force One on a scare tour telling everybody that every food inspector is going to be laid off,” Scalise stated. “Every school teacher and firefighter — we’ve been combing through the law books to figure out where the president fires and hires school teachers and police officers — but they don’t know that because they all think they’re going to get laid off.”
NPR reached out to the TSA asking for details of the delays Napolitano was talking about. This is the statement they published as the Obama administration reaffirmed that “that security lines at airports will worsen as sequestration takes hold, causing the government to cut overtime and put off filling vacant positions.”
The statement went on:
“While wait times can vary on a number of factors, due to the reductions mandated by sequestration, TSA will put in place a hiring freeze, which will result in up to an additional 1,000 TSO vacancies by Memorial Day Weekend and up to 2,600 vacancies by the end of the fiscal year. With TSA staffing levels decreasing over time, we expect that during busy travel periods wait times exceeding 30-40 minutes could double at nearly all of the largest airports. In addition, passengers who schedule their travel outside of peak flight schedules and plan to arrive close to their scheduled flight time may see their wait times now reach 30 minutes or more.”
TSA’s hiring freeze is expected to go into effect in April.
Napolitano speaking:
Photo TSA delays girl in wheelchair – story here
