Thursday, January 17, 2019
Amid the U.S. government’s longest ever shutdown, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport advised passengers to allow three hours to get through security for earlier this week which remained the same for Tuesday.
However, on January 16 advise on the airport’s website was brought down by two hours. As per media due to huge queues some passengers missed the flights and had to wait for over an hour at the security.
The shutdown which is on its 26th day prompted the hold-up by the government where the employees aren’t paid.
Although the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are expected to work unpaid during the shutdown but many more than normal are calling in sick. The TSA agents are responsible for security screening at U.S. airports.
Michael Bilello, TSA spokesman confirmed that four per cent more agents took unscheduled absence on Monday as compared to the same period last year. This was 7.6 per cent up from 3.2 per cent.
He went on saying that there will be meetings between the agency directors and airport authorities and airlines on issues concerning the resources. There will be efforts to consolidate that the operations are actively managed and the screening and security of the travelling public are not hampered.
To meet staffing shortage which cannot be addressed locally the TSA will further allocate officers wherever needed across the U.S.
In total the shutdown is impacting 800,000 government workers.
The deadlock over President Trump’s demand for $5.6bn in federal funds to build a US-Mexico border wall started on 22 December 2018.
However, the Democrat-majority House approved an appropriation bill minus the wall funding but Trump will reject any bill that does not include money.
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