America doesn’t have to suffer whenever Democrats — or Republicans — decide to hold airline passengers hostage with a government shutdown that inevitably leads to hours-long TSA lines.
One easy fix is to privatize airport security, as it already is at multiple hubs.
If agents aren’t federal employees, they’ll still get paid during a government shutdown, so won’t skip shifts and produce those monster lines as much as five hours long.
The problem now is Democrats’ refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA — but Republicans have triggered past shutdowns; both parties are all too likely to keep doing it.
But travelers at 20 airports where private companies do screening (San Francisco International, Kansas City International, Orlando Sanford and more) get spared.
By the way, some studies suggest private contractors do better at uncovering security threats and are more cost-effective — more reason to make the change.
Another solution: Fund TSA directly via the ticket surcharges originally imposed for that very purpose.
Like the agency, those started in the wake of 9/11; now $5.60 per one-way flight, they add up to over $4 billion a year, nearly half the TSA’s total budget and enough to keep paying agents despite a shutdown.
Nearly all the cash now goes to the Treasury Department’s general fund, leaving the agency at the mercy of congressional appropriations — but fixing the law should be easy even for Congress.
After all, federal gasoline-tax revenue goes directly into the Highway Trust Fund; the Federal Highway Administration spends it with no need for congressional appropriations, so FHA employees can be paid during shutdowns.
Meanwhile, the Dems’ shutdown has also held up a 3.8% raise for air-traffic controllers — who work for another agency that should be privatized, as in (for just one of many First World examples) Canada, where it’s funded by user fees and delivers better performance.
These workers, too, are deemed “essential” and obliged to work during shutdowns; but many wound up skipping shifts during the Democrats’ broader shutdown last year — causing different massive travel delays.
A privatized air-traffic-control system is also far more likely to keep its equipment up to date; the feds fall down on that front year after year — just one of many ways political hacks like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg endanger travelers.
It’s time to stop politicians from holding passengers for ransom; Congress needs to privatize TSA and ATC.
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