In response to the government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security is suspending Global Entry and TSA PreCheck. The premise is that with staff pay deferred until the end of the shutdown, fewer people will come to work, and so screeners are needed for general processing. Literally the opposite is true, and by TSA’s own statements this makes airport security less safe.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has taken a populist tact with this,
TSA and CBP are prioritizing the general traveling population at our airports and ports of entry and suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts.
And she makes it explicitly political,
This is the third time that Democrat politicians have shut down this department during the 119th Congress.
Of course, this move hasn’t been necessary in past shutdowns. And it literally has the opposite effect: it requires more screeners to process the same number of passengers, not fewer.
TSA’s past experience is that you need more passengers going through PreCheck when you have fewer screeners.
TSA PreCheck lines move more passengers through faster. They’re more staffing-efficient, since vetted passengers get lighter-touch security so each employee screens more passengers per hour. That’s not me, here’s a GAO report explaining not only that it’s more staffing-efficient, but means better security.
According to TSA, identifying more passengers as eligible for expedited screening will permit TSA to reduce screening resources for low-risk travelers, thereby enabling TSA to concentrate screening resources on higher-risk passenger populations.
Pushing all passengers through standard security means applying security resources equally to vetted and non-vetted travelers, which means worse security.
- Former TSA Administrator John Pistole: PreCheck doubles hourly throughput.
- Former TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger: PreCheck and Global Entry mean focusing resources on real threats by “expend[ing] fewer resources screening and inspecting low-risk travelers.”
This shift means more screening staff time will be spent on each passenger, making screening checkpoints less efficient and less effective. It’s doing the opposite of what’s claimed, because this is shutdown politics not a necessary step in the face of limited staffing.
Global Entry is probably even the more extreme example of this, because most Global Entry processing is done by machine (kiosks) instead of by individual CBP employees. The DHS suggestion that forcing Global Entry passengers to be processes by employees instead of machines somehow reduces the need for employees is… bizarre.
Kristi Noem’s statement on the decision to suspend PreCheck and Global Entry says “Shutdowns have serious real world consequences, not just for the men and women of DHS and their families who go without a paycheck, but it endangers our national security.” But it’s this decision that is creating the danger.
Noem’s job has been in jeopardy after U.S. citizen deaths tied to ICE enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. This puts her at the forefront of Trump administration efforts in the shutdown. Her political instinct is to be in front of the cameras. But it also risks making her very unpopular. She is literally the face of long screening lines at airports.
During the government shutdown in November, government-ordered flight cuts imposed mass pain on travelers, creating pressure to end the shutdown.
While TSA receives revenue from a dedicated ticket tax, it is not a dedicated payroll account and requires an appropriation for use. So passengers keep paying the TSA tax, but screeners still have their pay suspended during the shutdown, and passengers are forced into longer lines to dramatize the shutdown and accelerate the political crises.
This ratchets up pressure to end the shutdown. However, Republicans currently control the House, Senate and Presidency so it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be blamed – even if control of both congressional chambers is relatively narrow. And they’re already headed into a very challenging election later this year.
If this stupidity means fewer Republicans get elected at the midterms, then it is worth standing in line.
“However, Republicans currently control the House, Senate and Presidency so it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be blamed.”
And that’s the bottom line. I think this dumb idea is going to bite Noem, et al. in the butt, frankly.
Totally defies normal logic … and now diving into realm of random logic!
Hopefully CLEAR still functions to substitute for TSA/Pre, but lacking Global Entry will make returns to USA absolute torture!
Someone must explain reality to Kristi Noem ASAP …
… before everything blows up, big time, and the traveling public rebels with massive protests!
Btw, Gary. you saw the Hyatt overhaul was a ‘joke’, right? It is part of a study done by college students to see how fast misinformation spreads.
“However, Republicans currently control the House, Senate and Presidency so it’s hard to imagine that they won’t be blamed – even if control of both congressional chambers is relatively narrow.” —
Unfortunately, certain issues require more than merely a simple majority in either Congressional chamber, in order to pass! Also confounding is that Republicans, unlike Democrats, always have turncoat RINOs that will vote against the best interests of Republicans and side with Democrats, so simply having a (small) majority in Congress most often isn’t enough to “get things done” for Republicans!
Good. Get rid of PreCheck and Global Entry outright and focus on fixing “standard” security screening instead.
You do not know if there are other considerations and layers of security and emergency response staff.
Anyway, this is now part of Democrat regular tactics to shut down government. This time to defund law enforcement.
@Rob R Barobt – DHS says they’re doing it because of the shutdown, they say the reason they’re doing it. Your argument is that the Trump Administration is lying.
You have to be a complete moron to blame the Republicans – Screwmer and the DemocRATs are solely responsible for this shutdown, just as they were for the 6 week shutdown late last year. Real Americans will not forget this and wil vote Republican in the mid terms.
I don’t agree with this move, but I also don’t agree with the party completely out of power holding a functioning government hostage repeatedly unless they get their entire wish list. What’s the point of democracy if the party that controls POTUS, congress and SCOTUS can’t do a thing?
There is a certain twisted logic here. Close down conveniences that are used by better off people and the hope is that they will put pressure on the Democrats to come to the table and make concessions. The same thing happens when there is a shutdown and the most prominent national parks are the first ones closed. So it is raising the stakes and playing chicken. The fact that it makes things worse for everybody involved is beside the point.
Eliminate congressional escorts through airports if you want to save resources.
Pre Check was open at RDU when I went though at 6:45 AM.
At Logan this AM and about to use CLEAR and hope to avoid Noem’s sheet show at Terminal E.
Incompetence is the new normal.
Completely normal PreCheck experience at EWR (Terminal C) this morning at 8 AM.
Douchebag move from Secretary Kardashian. The only qualification these people have is the ability to be vengeful and spiteful. Zero skills or common sense.
@kimmiea
Someone needs Civics tutoring. We can get you in the same school that will teach AOC foreign policy and geography to Hank Johnson. Economics? Full class there with AOC, Mamdani, Johnson & Pritzker, Spanberger, Johnston and others.
It is extraordinary the mental gymnastics some employ to avoid assigning blame to Noem for this game playing. The GOP is the governing party and is responsible. What an utter clown show.
How about having them work remotely from their home districts or respective state capitals?
@Lance
Could it be that Noem is merely being proactive in anticipation of a long Democrat holdout? We saw last time at some point the controllers stop coming and of course TSA workers as well.
Fire this idiot, please. And Hegseth, too. I have never seen a bigger bunch of fools.
Our government is really a clown show. Both political parties. Hope it gets resolved by Friday when I fly. MIA will be a total cluster without TSA.
Politics aside, this operational move defies all logic.
Pre check lines have been designed and marketed to expedite screening. And, when the ANALogic scanner have the right person operating them n pre check, the lines breeze along.
Take precheck away, lower the number of staff and you have everyone taking as much as long to process. So, we have fewer staff doing more work during a period of the year when a lot of rookies are traveling for spring break. That sounds about right.
We can debate the politics, but this is just operationally stupid.
@bhn
Alejandro Mayorkas says hi, along with Kamala and Sleepy Joe.
why would anyone defend anything this administration does anymore?
Epstein? ICE ?
Supreme court ruling against tariffs? (Gorsuch opinion calling other justices morons is a masterclass)
its become a criminal enterprise
And yet, the uninformed masses will continue to insist that we need government to perform airport security and other routine tasks. When will they learn?
@ Gary — Most travel is unnecessary. Let the idiots in charge shoot themselves in the foot and wreck the econony. There off to such a great start, time to let the Dems come in and clean up their mess, like they always do.
Ringling Bros could’ve run the government better than this.
Looking forward to my prorated refund for not receiving Global Entry or TSA PreCheck… oh wait.
@Mike P — Our one-trick pony returns. It’s always ‘government-bad’ with you. And yet, anarcho-libertarians will just lead us to corporate feudalism. The solution is reasonable regulations, effective government through transparency and accountability, not the chaos you keep pushing on here.
I 100 percent blame Democrats for the last shutdown. It was entirely pointless, accomplished nothing, and you would have to have been an idiot to not see what the ultimate result was going to be.
But THIS time they are merely asking for very reasonable guardrails on law enforcement behavior.
But EVEN if you blame Democrats for. this shutdown, shutting down TSA Pre is an entirely unnecessary action. It just makes screening MORE expensive to conduct requiring MORE employees to do it.
On the good news front, if I go early maybe my upgrade chances will improve!
@1990, Ironically, you’re a member of the “uninformed masses” to which I referred. Your level of ignorance is only superseded by your narricism
GI Bimbo Barbie needs to go!
@Gene
Clean up the mess eh? Open the border again? Step one? Defund the police and ICE? Hilarious!
while, as your fairly humble thawt leader notes, everyone passing tsa checkpoints into secure area of airports will be affected and passport entry points will also be affected, the INTENDED targets were congresspeople who lose DHS airport escorts and wealthy americans who travel more (for leisure and business) to be inconvenienced enough to end the shutdown.
hopefully noem can do another ad like she did in SD where she dresses up as a TSA officer and shows how she’s helping out on the front lines during this period.
susie wiles has kept this shitshow intact longer than anyone could have anticipated. don’t plan on noem going anywhere anytime soon.
@ted poco
real reporting is that congressional escorts have also paused.
Gary should have linked to the Washington Monument Ploy.
It’s a long-known tactic, but I can’t imagine that it will succeed.
And just like that, one of Trump’s pals called to complain and the tsa precheck line is back.
@Gary, it’s time to update this as DHS has reversed course and is keeping TSA Precheck open for now. https://x.com/TSA/status/2025596243762884636
“Also confounding is that Republicans, unlike Democrats, always have turncoat RINOs that will vote against the best interests of Republicans and side with Democrats, so simply having a (small) majority in Congress most often isn’t enough to “get things done” for Republicans!”
Yes the cult party that thinks tariffs will lower inflation is the one that is more politically diverse than the party of Joe Manchin and AOC.
Nevermind, just Noem not having a clue.
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) – The Trump administration reversed course on Sunday on the program that allows millions of airline travelers to get expedited security screening, saying it will remain operational, hours after it said the program would be temporarily suspended amid a shutdown of much of the agency.
Democrats blocked funding for HOMELAND SECURITY including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and TSA.
ICE and CBP are still funded and will continue to deport criminal illegal aliens.
@Winston
Cult huh? Looks like a third zombie has had some of that “asasinate Trump juice”. More violence from the intolerant left.
If Clear is allowed to stay open this will be the ultimate travesty. It’s way past time to shut down this redundant and unneeded work around.
WaPo, NPR and other outlets now reporting that Precheck won’t be suspended. So Noem’s latest idiotic move seems to be reversed, though right now status of Global Entry unclear.
Yes it Is a stupid policy designed to create suffering for a political statement and not a rational policy. But each party has made non rational travel policy. The Biden administration blocked all EU tourist from coming to the US during the Pandemic when they had both proof of vaccinations and negative tests at the same time permitting most of the rest of the world (except China, Iran, Brazil and Russia) tourists to enter with ONLY a negative test. From June 2021 until November 6, 2021 while the EU let Americans enter with negative tests and proof of vaccination the US refused to let EU residents enter the US with proof of vaccination and negative test. So our closest Allie’s with vaccinations could not come and spend money and visit family but any resident of Africa or most of the world could enter the US with only a negative Covid test. That policy cost our economy billions of dollars (5 months of no European tourism) where Western Europe a tourists typically spend 39 billion a year in the US (source Google). So 5/12 of lost Western European tourists is was billions for absolutely no rational reason (except that Trump had revered it prior to leaving office so Biden revered it back. Both are examples of politics at their worst.
Not exactly a bright idea for her to achieve her goals since the congressional delegations from the mid-Atlantic through New England have an alternative to air travel (Amtrak) and a majority of them are Ds, but delegations from further away that are majority Rs, have no alternative options to get them home and back each weekend, as most have been accustomed to doing.
@George Nathan Romey
VOur government is really a clown show. Both political parties. Hope it gets resolved by Friday when I fly. MIA will be a total cluster without TSA.”
Once they know it’s important to you, I am certain they will make an exception for Miami. Self-importance is very important.
What struck me as counterintuitive about this was the decision to shut down the programs that help fund the program. Everyone using precheck and global entry paid to use that service.
Another example of biting the hand that feeds you.
Hate to interrupt the interminable political posturing but…
Mobile Passport Control (MPC) is **NOT** suspended and beats the heck outta standing in lines.
Now, back to your usual nonsense
This is just another example of the MAGA idiots with botox Kristi and the dictator in office using their vindictiveness on the American people. For those that voted for them you get what you voted for. Beware America this is how a country gets their rights taken away and you will never get them back. Weaponizing the government against Americans is rampant with this administration.. Wake up America or the new Hitler will take over. Vote your GOP congressional reps out as they do not have your best interests at heart only to support a deranged leader with unbelievable vindictiveness that they are afraid of.
DHS is just taking a page out of the Democrat ops plan, whenever there is a blue state shutdown the first thing they do is padlock the rest areas to cause maximum inconvenience.
Some “underling” who knows what they’re doing and how things work, apparently reached the clueless cosplay Noem with the facts and closing PreCheck and Global Entry was reversed.
Yes, Pre & GE are open again but let’s not forget what incompetent fools are in cabinet positions in this administration, Noem being one of the worst. She doesn’t really run DHS anyway. When Congress critters want something from DHS they don’t call Kristi, they call Cory, FFS. She’s just another botoxed trump ho staging ridiculous press conferences because she must be in the spotlight.
@ 1990
” reasonable regulations, effective government through transparency and accountability,”
And the solution for travel is to grow wings.
@jack the ladd — Didn’t you mean, ‘when pigs fly,’ or is pork still haram?