Homeland Security Chairman outlines "increased risk" of air travel due to Schumer Shutdown

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R., N.Y.), the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, explained to the Washington Reporter how his home state senator’s ongoing shutdown is causing an “increased risk amid an evolving threat landscape.”

While Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) continues his historic obstruction, Garbarino painted a bleak portrait of what America’s airports look like — and laid the blame squarely at the feet of Schumer and his fellow Senate Democrats.

“By refusing to pass the House’s continuing resolution, Senate Democrats are forcing dedicated TSA and FAA personnel to work without pay, putting additional stress on this frontline workforce and causing lengthy delays at major airports, like Newark,” Garbarino told the Reporter. “Even worse, every minute this shutdown continues, it is undermining these professionals’ homeland security missions and putting the traveling public — and our airspace — at increased risk amid an evolving threat landscape. As we near the busy holiday season, it is vital for Congress to know the extent of these operational impacts and for my Senate Democrat colleagues to see the dangerous cost of prolonging this shutdown.”

The numbers behind the shutdown are staggering. TSA and FAA personnel alone handle almost 50,000 flights a day and screen almost three million passengers.

Between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Transportation (DOT), tens of thousands of workers are deemed to be essential, and they have been working with out pay. This includes around 30,000 FAA personnel — including over 10,000 air traffic controllers — and over 60,000 TSA employees.

Even though the holiday season hasn’t picked up in earnest yet, Garbarino has been cautioning about the national security threats that a prolonged shutdown could cause since before it even started.

“Amid heightened threats from America’s adversaries, a lapse in government funding will dangerously undermine the Department of Homeland Security’s core mission to protect the American people,” Garbarino explained hours before what became the longest-ever government shutdown started.

Since then, Garbarino and his colleagues on the Homeland Security Committee — particularly Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R., Fla.), the Transportation and Maritime Security Chairman — have sent flurries of letters and missives to various transportation industry stakeholders, including to Airlines for America, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), and more, outlining the concerns that a shutdown would and could have for travelers’ safety.

“The current crisis is the direct result of Senate Democrats’ refusal to pass a clean, bipartisan continuing resolution to fund the government,” the lawmakers wrote. “Their inaction is forcing tens of thousands of essential federal employees to work without pay, weakening coordination across the National Airspace System (NAS), and placing unacceptable strain on the front-line workforce that is responsible for safeguarding the traveling public.”