Politics Created the TSA Crisis—Congress Can Fix It Through Reconciliation

The chaos that gripped American airports over the past several months was entirely preventable. It was the direct consequence of political leaders prioritizing leverage over the wellbeing of hard-working TSA officers and the traveling public.

The upcoming reconciliation package is the opportunity to change that. Congress should follow President Trump’s example by paying TSA officers for the next three years and taking that leverage off the table. Three years of stable, dedicated funding for TSA officers is the minimum needed to rebuild staffing pipelines, retain experienced personnel, and ensure that we do not experience the same dysfunction for the foreseeable future. Without it, we are simply setting the stage for the same crisis to repeat itself as early as June and again two months before the election, when funding for TSA will likely run dry.