Up To 55% Of TSA Screeners Are Calling Out — Here’s 7 Ways To Still Get Through Airport Security

Airport security lines are getting very bad, and it’s centered around a handful of major hubs where TSA screeners are calling out sick even though they’re just fine. They have pay deferred during the partial government shutdown where their parent agency’s funding is being held hostage. The Department of Homeland Security is the only one that hasn’t been funded.

• Screeners will get paid for their work once funding is restored
  
• But many aren’t in a position to defer pay – they need to make rent now – and while their pay increased 30% three years ago many aren’t in a position to float this.
  
• They worked with deferred pay back in November, too. Some are just saying ‘forget it’. More than 35 have quit. While some may be driving Uber in the meantime.

Nationally on Sunday and on Monday over 10% of the workforce called out. It’s normally under 2%. At some major airports we’re seeing call outs hit 39%!

Sick calls were especially high yesterday at several major airports:
MSY 38.8%
ATL 37.1%
HOU 35.2%
JFK 30.4%
IAH 24.4%
LGA 20.8% https://t.co/FpdIsPdTQS

— Kris Van Cleave (@krisvancleave) March 17, 2026

Earlier TSA data reported callouts at JFK of 21%, Atlanta 19%, Houston 18%, New Orleans 14%, and Pittsburgh 13%. So things appear to be getting much worse. (Though Houston Hobby had the highest single-day callout rate of the shutdown at 55% on Saturday.) Of course at some airports call outs have also been a function of bad weather where screeners either can’t or do not want to go to work.

Here’s what things look like in Atlanta:

Atlanta airport still facing major disruptions due to TSA staffing shortages tied to the partial government shutdown. Here’s what Hartsfield-Jackson looks like this morning: pic.twitter.com/E2kOcseJnV

— ATLSCOOP (@ATL_SCOOP) March 17, 2026

Show up 3 hours before your flight in Atlanta pic.twitter.com/qsMw3Gw25B

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) March 16, 2026

International is packed too! pic.twitter.com/PaYOK5I9xO

— ATLSCOOP (@ATL_SCOOP) March 17, 2026

Here are half a dozen ways you can get through security during this mess.

1. PreCheck is often much better, though at some airports they’ve been closing PreCheck lines to process all passengers through each checkpoint as general security.

   

2. CLEAR is useful to have. Those lines may be terrible, too, but as long as they’re shorter they generally dump to the front of a security queue. Remember that there’s frequently both CLEAR for PreCheck and for general security – check the length of each line. They also offer a paid line-skipping option.

3. There may be a Priority Security queue that you have access to (based on status, class of service, or because nobody actually checks credentials) that pushes you to the front of the security line. It’s usually the general security line rather than PreCheck but they may give you a pass to be treated as though you had PreCheck.

4. TSA Touchless is worth signing up for, through your airline, where you use biometrics to identify yourself. It gives you a separate line to get in and since it’s new there are far fewer people that have access.

5. Reserve your spot in line at some airports like Phoenix, Minneapolis, Denver and Orlando.

6. When things are really bad – lines are true chaos – you can usually cut without being noticed (or cut asking the person you’re cutting in front of nicely). Debate the ethics of this in the comments in you’d like.

7. Just show up several hours early this is a miserable experience but you may consider it better than missing your flight. You may not need the extra time, so give yourself plenty to do once you make it through security in case the early arrival was completely unnecessary.

What’s striking is that this is a complete own-goal. The entire government is funded. There’s just a showdown over Department of Homeland Security funding, over Immigration and Customers Enforcement issues even though ICE itself has plenty of money to operate. Democrats are offering a standalone bill to fund TSA, Republicans are rejecting it because they don’t want to give up leverage and have to bargain on immigration alone. Republicans control both houses of Congress and the Presidency but don’t have enough votes to pass DHS funding on their own. Travelers are a pawn in this.

The Trump administration is now warning that some smaller airports could be forced to suspend operations due to lack of TSA staffing. This leverages members of Congress representing those regions, and helps explain why Republicans see TSA screening as strong leverage to push through agency funding without the concessions that Democrats want.

TSA screening is ostensibly funded by ticket taxes, but that just illustrates the funding fungibility – you’re actually kicking into the government’s general fund, not providing dedicated revenue to the agency. Your ticket includes this tax that’s merely sold as being for security even when proper screening isn’t being provided.

Privatization helps. It’s not actually dependent on these appropriations in the short-run. But the government’s privatization program (which they’ve been loathe to allow airports into in recent years) is highly flawed, with the TSA actually picking a vendor and assigning it to airports rather than allowing the local airport to do a procurement for provision of security overseen by TSA regulation (as is done in much of the world, especially Europe).

Of course at $10 billion a year they aren’t providing that much security to begin with, and we mostly rely on terrorism being hard, reinforced cockpit doors and passengers who would no longer being docile shifting threats elsewhere.