Amid long lines and delays at the nation’s airports, travelers say they feel sorry for airline workers caught up in the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown — and they’re more frustrated with politicians in Washington for letting it all happen.
“These are people who suffer enough,” said Lizabeth Garza-García, 45, of Fort Worth, Texas, speaking of the Transportation Security Administration while waiting in line at the San Diego airport. “We don’t want another 9/11. … I would like these people to get funding.”
President Donald Trump signed a memo Friday directing DHS to pay TSA workers, who missed payments during the agency’s shutdown that began in Feb. 14. Employees are expected to get most of their pay back starting Monday, according to a TSA email shared by an agency official.
Trump signed the memo after the House voted down a Senate-passed deal that would have funded all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. A senior administration official said the money would come from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the tax cut and spending bill that Trump signed into law in July.
As for why Trump hasn’t signed off on a repayment plan so far, a senior White House official said the administration had conducted a “long review process” that “pointed the way” out of the crisis.
“Aviation in America was at a critical juncture, and the president took decisive action in the face of a suspended Congress,” the official said, blaming the shutdown on Democrats.
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The tension has led TSA workers — who also went on a long government shutdown last year — to turn to the kindness of family members, friends and food banks to get by. People also faced hours-long waits at airports, with security lines stretching out the door in some areas.
Travelers at the airports said they knew that while the long lines were boring, the agency’s staff were terrible.
“They don’t deserve to be paid,” said Frank Oberon, a San Diego resident returning home from a trip to Austin, Texas, with his wife, Ruth.
Ruth said she’s seen travelers handing gift cards to TSA agents in Austin, hoping they’ll help them get through without paying.
The couple votes Republican and supports Trump, and they say the funding battle won’t change that. Frank, a retired federal corrections officer, said he does not blame Trump.
“It’s not really his thing,” he said, pointing to Congress’s power over funding.
David Goodspeed, 59, of Alexandria, Virginia, who was flying out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday, said: “Failure to fund the TSA is a dereliction of duty for Congress. They have given the president too much power. That funding is in their hands. … And Donald Trump has been pushing the Republican leadership in Congress to deny it.”
Florida resident David Simmons, 63, who was also at National, said: “I blame them all. Their job is to fix this and they’re not doing it.”
“I blame the Democrats the most if I had to pick a side. Withholding TSA money is not the goal of the issue they’re protesting,” he added. “I get that you don’t like what ICE is doing, I’m not saying it’s not a legitimate protest, I’m just saying they killed a chicken to scare a monkey.
An NBC News poll conducted in October, during the last government shutdown, found that voters blamed Trump and Republicans the most for the conflict. But the share of voters who suspected Democrats was the highest compared to other shutdowns measured in NBC News polls over the past 30 years.
Democrats who spoke to NBC News largely blamed Trump, but frustration with Congress — and the federal government’s failure to cooperate — was widespread.
Patricia Wright, 81, a Democrat from Setauket, New York, was in line at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He called the situation at the airports “ridiculous” and said “it seems to me that our president is responsible.”
“Let’s work together, let’s work together, let’s get things back to normal,” he said. “I think it’s crazy that we’re dealing with these kinds of fuel price hikes. It looks like things are going downhill.”
Miraj Shaw-Hudson also blamed Trump and said “there is no reason why these TSAs should not be paid for doing their jobs.”
“We need everyone to vote, because this is not the case,” said Shaw-Hudson, 28, a Democrat from Oakland, California, who was also at JFK. “We need a new Congress, a new government. We need a new president. I don’t have kids, but I don’t want to raise kids in this economy, and that doesn’t even include higher gas prices.”
Montville, New Jersey resident Aimee Simeus, 49, said she is not sure who is at fault. Simeus is a Democrat but did not vote in the 2024 election.
“I understand why the left doesn’t want to sign the bill, even though I think there are few real leaders on both sides,” he said. “Nobody wants to stand up and do something. It’s hard for Democrats when the country is run by Donald Trump and you’re on the other side of the aisle and you don’t want to agree with him, even though that might disrupt things.”
Marshall Snyder, 65, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, at National Airport said: “Everyone needs to look in the mirror. [in the House and the Senate] we cannot reach an agreement.”
