I Spent Over 3 Hours in a TSA Line. Why Haven't We Abolished This Agency? |
TSA
I Spent Over 3 Hours in a TSA Line. Why Haven't We Abolished This Agency?
The ability to get home should not be a privilege contingent on the political moment.
Billy Binion | 3.26.2026 5:01 PM
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Travelers wait in line for TSA in the parking garage at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (Billy Binion)
I am not one to get to the airport early. Why would I? I take no joy in sitting in a terminal. I do not need to eat at Chili's. I will not join the Group 5 passengers who preemptively crowd around the boarding door like they're waiting for the last chopper out of Saigon. And I am not opposed to an airport sprint (I could probably use the cardio), though it rarely gets to that point. I have never missed a flight.
So imagine my dismay when the closest I came to doing so, if memory serves, was when I arrived at the airport three hours and 40 minutes prior to takeoff on Sunday.
My flight home from a wedding in New Orleans coincided with the 37th day of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, which, among other things, has seen agents with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) go unpaid. Hundreds have resigned. Several airports, including New Orleans, have seen sky-high call-out rates. On Sunday, 42.3 percent of TSA officers there called out of work, per numbers provided by the federal government.
The result was more disastrous than I could have imagined. Upon entering the airport, the security line spilled down from the second floor........