Published on : 13 Mar 2026
Breaking: Today — Friday, March 13 — is the day 61,000 TSA agents receive their first completely empty paycheck since the DHS shutdown began February 14. Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu warned specifically that “spring-break travel will heat up as TSA workers receive their first zero paycheck on March 13.” That day is now here. More than 300 TSA officers have already quit. Absence rates have tripled at major hubs. At Houston’s Hobby Airport, 53% of scheduled officers called out on March 8 alone. The standard security lane averages 90 minutes. The PreCheck lane averages 3 minutes — the same airport, the same morning, 87 minutes apart. Here is everything you need to know, airport by airport, lane by lane, to get through Spring Break 2026 without missing your flight.
Published: March 13, 2026 Shutdown Day: Day 27 — DHS funding lapsed February 14, 2026 TSA agents working without pay: ~61,000 nationwide (CNN/DHS confirmed) THIS IS: The third DHS shutdown in six months — DHS spokesperson confirmed “THIRD time in nearly six months” Today’s milestone: First FULL zero paycheck issued to TSA officers — March 13 (previous paycheck was partial) Officers quit since Feb 14: 300+ — confirmed CBS News internal TSA data, NBC, The Hill, Click2Houston Nationwide absence rate: Average 6% during shutdown vs 2% pre-shutdown (CBS News internal TSA data) Peak national absence rate: 9% (single-day peak) — CBS News confirmed Hobby Airport March 8: 53% of scheduled officers called out — CBS News internal TSA data Hobby Airport March 9: 47% called out — CBS News confirmed Hobby standard lane avg: 90 minutes — Houston Airports official statement (Click2Houston March 10) Hobby PreCheck lane avg: 3 minutes — Houston Airports official statement (same source) George Bush IAH: 3–5 minutes most checkpoints — Click2Houston March 10 Hobby peak wait (March 8): 3.5 hours — Reuters/PrismNews confirmed Hobby 5-hour warning: Issued by airport to arrive up to 5 hours early — Travel and Tour World confirmed New Orleans (MSY): Line snaked through terminal AND across parking garage — PBS/CBS footage confirmed New Orleans peak wait: 77 minutes — Reuters/NBC confirmed Atlanta (ATL) absence rate: 19% — second highest of any major US hub — CBS News internal data JFK absence rate: 21% — highest major hub nationally — CBS News internal data Pittsburgh (PIT): 13% absence rate — CBS News confirmed DFW: 25–55 minutes, Terminals A and D worst — KBAT March 12 Austin ABIA: 30–50 minutes — SXSW dual pressure — KBAT March 12 Charlotte Douglas (CLT): 47-minute delays — NBC confirmed TSA PreCheck: ✅ Open — DHS reversed initial closure decision — evaluated airport by airport Global Entry: Suspended → Reopening confirmed (CNN March 10 — DHS announced plans to reopen) Congress status (March 12): Senate floor debate produced no resolution — CNBC confirmed — no deal in sight Airlines for America (A4A): “America’s transportation security workforce is too important to be used as political leverage” — CEO Chris Sununu AAAE president Todd Hauptli: “The negative impacts of the shutdown will worsen before conditions improve” Peak Spring Break days: March 12 ✅ (yesterday) + March 15 (Saturday — next confirmed peak) Houston airports Spring Break total: 2.2 million passengers March 5–16 — ABC13/Houston Airports Houston Spring Break increase: Up 3% over 2025 — Houston Airports official Nationwide spring travel projection: 171 million passengers — Airlines for America Nationwide spring travel increase: Up 4% over same period 2025 — A4A Prior shutdown precedent: 2018–19 shutdown — 10% TSA workers skipped Sundays → Congress passed short-term funding Prior DHS shutdown: 43-day shutdown October/November 2025 — 1,110 TSA officers left the agency — TSA Administrator McNeill Congressional testimony Back pay guarantee: ✅ Confirmed — 2019 law guarantees back pay once shutdown ends — within several days of reopening
For 27 days, 61,000 TSA officers have been working without receiving their normal government pay. They were classified as “essential workers” — legally required to report to screening lanes even with no money coming in. Most live paycheck to paycheck. In written testimony to Congress before the shutdown began, TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill stated exactly that.
On March 8 and March 9 — last Saturday and Sunday — the system showed its first signs of collapse. At Houston’s Hobby Airport, more than half of all scheduled officers called out on Saturday. Nearly half called out on Sunday. The result was security lines that peaked at 3.5 hours, with the airport warning travelers to arrive as many as five hours before departure. Passengers described lines snaking out of the terminal doors, through the parking garage, and back. In New Orleans, the security queue stretched outside the terminal entirely and across a parking structure floor.
Then came today. March 13 is the date that Airlines for America’s CEO Chris Sununu specifically named when warning Congress about the coming crisis: the first complete zero paycheck. Every previous paycheck since February 14 contained at least a partial payment. Today’s contains nothing. TSA officers who have been absorbing financial pain for four weeks now face a paycheck showing $0.00.
“I refilled my water buckets and now I’m starting to empty them again,” said TSA union secretary-treasurer Johnny Jones — a reference to the financial reserves officers had built during the last shutdown. The officer who spoke to Houston’s KPRC2 — TSA agent Njukia Njukia — described taking a second job to survive. “It’s the insecurity about when the shutdown is going to end… and when I will be paid again. The stress is real.”
Chicago TSA officer Cre Williams told NBC affiliate WNDU: “We’re not just doing this only for a check, but we’re doing this to protect the country. We might not carry guns or anything of that nature, but we are a vital piece just like everyone else.”
More than 300 have already quit. Internal TSA data obtained exclusively by CBS News shows the nationwide callout rate has risen from 2% pre-shutdown to an average of 6% — with individual airports reaching far higher. JFK is at 21%. Atlanta is at 19%. Hobby reached 53% in a single day.
This is the backdrop against which 171 million spring break travelers are now moving through the nation’s airports.
Hobby is the most visible flashpoint of the entire DHS shutdown. It is smaller, more constrained, and more TSA-dependent than Bush Intercontinental — and it showed the cracks first.
The numbers:
✈️ Standard lane: 90 minutes average — Houston Airports official ✈️ PreCheck lane: 3 minutes average — Houston Airports official (same day, same airport) ✈️ Peak wait (March 8): 3.5 hours — Reuters confirmed ✈️ Monday March 9 afternoon: Still 2 hours — airports still urging 3–4 hour early arrival ✈️ Tuesday March 10 morning: Reduced to under 15 minutes briefly — eased by mid-week ✈️ Today (March 13): Averaging 45–90 minutes with peak departure bank surges — KBAT March 12
The 53% callout explained: On March 8, 53% of scheduled Hobby officers called out — meaning more than half the morning shift did not show up. The remaining officers faced a Saturday Spring Break crowd with half the normal screening capacity. Those who did show up worked without pay, managing lines that stretched out of the building.
Why Hobby and not IAH? Houston Airports has not publicly answered this question. But the data suggests Hobby has a smaller absolute number of officers — meaning each individual callout has a proportionally larger impact on total capacity. At IAH, even a 10–15% absence rate leaves enough officers to maintain functional throughput. At Hobby, the same percentage absence rate can close entire checkpoints.
Traveler Aaron Purvis told ABC13 on Sunday: “We got here at 10 a.m. My flight was departing at 1:50 p.m. We’re not going to make that.”
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 4 hours before departure. Use PreCheck — 3 minutes vs 90 minutes is the starkest PreCheck advantage of any airport in the country right now.
IAH handles roughly three-quarters of all Houston passengers. Its larger officer pool has meant disruption is proportionally less severe.
The numbers:
✈️ Most checkpoints: 3–5 minutes — Click2Houston March 10 ✈️ Current wait: 15–40 minutes — Terminal C North reporting shortest — KBAT March 12 ✈️ Peak day (March 12): 185,000 passengers in a single day — ABC13/Houston Airports projected
If you have a choice between Hobby and IAH for a Houston departure, IAH is the significantly safer option for the next 10 days. The capacity buffer is larger, the officer pool is deeper, and even at elevated absence rates, enough checkpoints remain open to maintain flow.
Atlanta is the world’s busiest airport and has the second-highest TSA absence rate of any major US hub at 19%. This is a structural problem, not a one-day event.
The numbers:
✈️ Absence rate: 19% sustained during shutdown — CBS News internal TSA data ✈️ Peak wait (weekend March 8–9): Over 1 hour confirmed — NBC/Houston Public Media ✈️ Current wait: Variable — airport advising 3-hour early arrival
The Atlanta situation is compounded by a separate event — the March 6 severe thunderstorm that forced the evacuation of the air traffic control tower, producing 102 Delta cancellations and 1,000+ delays that cascaded through March 9. That weather event is resolved, but the TSA staffing issue is not. A 19% sustained absence rate means roughly 1 in 5 scheduled officers is missing on any given day.
Atlanta is Delta’s fortress hub — it handles the carrier’s largest single concentration of daily flights. Connection-heavy itineraries through ATL carry elevated risk right now: a delayed inbound segment plus a 19% understaffed checkpoint equals a missed connection with very few open seats to rebook onto.
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 3 hours before departure. If connecting through ATL, allow a minimum 90-minute connection window — longer if possible.
New Orleans became one of the most visually striking images of the shutdown crisis — a security line that physically ran out of the terminal building and across a parking garage floor.
The numbers:
✈️ Absence rate: 14% — CBS News internal TSA data ✈️ Peak wait (Sunday March 8): 77 minutes — Reuters confirmed ✈️ Monday afternoon: Dropped to 10 minutes — Houston Public Media confirmed ✈️ Airport statement: “Due to impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown, there is a shortage of TSA workers at the security checkpoint” — official X post
MSY is a mid-sized airport with limited physical expansion room for queuing — which is why the lines went outside. When the building runs out of queue space, the only option is the parking structure. The visual impact of travelers snaking through a multi-story garage told the story better than any wait-time number.
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 3 hours before departure on weekends and Monday mornings. Midweek afternoons have normalized.
DFW is managing better than Houston but experiencing checkpoint surges during peak departure banks.
The numbers:
✈️ Current wait: 25–55 minutes — Terminals A and D most congested — KBAT March 12 ✈️ Absence impact: Less severe than Hobby/ATL — larger officer pool provides buffer
DFW is American Airlines’ largest hub — the carrier is operating at full Spring Break capacity, and any TSA staffing fluctuation gets amplified by the density of American’s operation. Terminal A (American domestic) and Terminal D (international) are the highest-volume checkpoints and the most affected.
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 2.5 hours before departure. Terminal E (Southwest/international) has been consistently faster.
Austin faces a unique dual burden: the DHS shutdown’s TSA staffing gaps PLUS the massive influx of South by Southwest attendees arriving simultaneously with spring break travelers.
The numbers:
✈️ Current wait: 30–50 minutes — KBAT March 12 ✈️ SXSW runs: March 7–16 — peak overlap with Spring Break Week 1 entirely
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 2.5–3 hours before departure through March 16. SXSW concludes March 16 — expect partial normalization after that date.
Charlotte Douglas is a major connection hub for American Airlines’ east coast network. Its 47-minute reported wait time is manageable but significantly above pre-shutdown norms.
The numbers:
✈️ Current wait: 47 minutes — NBC confirmed ✈️ Absence rate: Not publicly reported — absence pressure confirmed
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 2.5 hours before departure. Allow 75-minute connection minimums for American Eagle regional connections.
JFK has the highest absence rate of any major US hub at 21% — but its physical scale and international passenger profile mean the impact manifests differently than at Hobby. International arrivals go through CBP processing, not TSA — and Global Entry is now back open. The TSA impact is primarily on domestic departures from Terminals 1, 2, 4, and 8.
The numbers:
✈️ Absence rate: 21% — CBS News internal TSA data — highest of any major hub✈️ Peak weekend (Feb): 77% of JFK officers called out on one Sunday — CBS News confirmed
Arrival recommendation: Arrive 3 hours before domestic departure. International departures: 3.5 hours.
Larger officer pools at Denver and O’Hare have maintained functional throughput despite elevated absence rates. O’Hare is already managing the FAA slot cap pressure — TSA hasn’t added significantly to its disruption profile this week.
This is the most actionable data in this entire article. At Houston Hobby on Tuesday March 10:
| Lane Type | Wait Time | Same Airport |
|---|---|---|
| Standard screening | 90 minutes | William P. Hobby Airport |
| TSA PreCheck | 3 minutes | William P. Hobby Airport |
| Difference | 87 minutes | Same checkpoint, same morning |
This gap exists because PreCheck uses dedicated lanes with dedicated officers. When general lane officers call out, PreCheck lanes are protected — DHS reversed its initial plan to close PreCheck specifically because doing so would have collapsed throughput entirely.
The math for Spring Break:
✈️ PreCheck costs $78 for 5 years (~$15.60/year, ~$1.30/month) ✈️ At current Hobby wait times, PreCheck saves 87 minutes per trip, one direction ✈️ Over a 5-year membership with 4 annual round trips: 80 trips × 87 minutes = 116 hours saved ✈️ Application takes 15 minutes online + one 10-minute in-person appointment ✈️ Approval typically within 3–5 days for most applicants ✈️ If you don’t have PreCheck for THIS trip: at Hobby, budget 90+ minutes for standard lanes
Apply for PreCheck: tsa.gov/precheck
If you already have Global Entry: Global Entry includes PreCheck — use the PreCheck lane. Global Entry is now confirmed open for enrollment again after temporary suspension.
The DHS shutdown began February 14, 2026 — the same day DHS funding expired. It is the last federal agency not funded for the fiscal year. Every other department is operating normally.
The root cause: two US citizens were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Senate Democrats demanded reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection operations as a condition for funding DHS. Republicans have resisted most of those demands, arguing changes were already made after the Minneapolis incidents.
The latest congressional status (March 12, 2026 — CNBC confirmed):
On Wednesday evening, dozens of senators took to the floor in a public debate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune called for negotiations: “I don’t understand why anybody would object to that if you are sincere in trying to get a deal.” Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Sen. Patty Murray responded that the Republican proposal “doesn’t do enough to meet this moment, not by a long shot.” Sen. Cynthia Lummis stated: “We’re in a terrible conundrum here.” The debate produced no resolution. The Senate adjourned without advancing any funding measure.
Democrats say they have offered to fund TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and CISA separately — separating them from the disputed ICE/CBP funding. Republicans have so far not agreed to this approach.
The House is out for a week. No legislation can advance. The shutdown is guaranteed to continue for at least the next 7 days.
What this means for your Spring Break travel: Lines will not improve this weekend. AAAE President Todd Hauptli put it plainly: he expects “the negative impacts of the shutdown to worsen before conditions improve.”
Behind the wait-time numbers are 61,000 workers in a genuinely difficult position. They are legally classified as essential — quitting means losing federal employment and benefits. Showing up means working for $0. The financial math is unforgiving.
TSA agent Njukia Njukia in Houston — who spoke with KPRC2 for the second time in six months, having also spoken to them during the October 2025 shutdown — described near-eviction during that previous shutdown. This time, he took a second job before the shutdown even began. “I was trying to have my apartment complex work with me… and they weren’t really willing to do that.” He now pays rent in advance when possible.
TSA officer Cre Williams at Chicago Midway told NBC affiliate WNDU she had already called out herself — and that many colleagues are doing the same. “It is getting to that point because some of us have family members that we have to see to take care of as well.”
A DHS spokesperson acknowledged the situation with unusual bluntness: TSA workers are being forced to work without pay “for the THIRD time in nearly six months,” adding that “the longer this shutdown drags on, the more financial hardship our patriotic officers and their families face, leading to more staffing issues and longer wait times for travelers.”
The irony: the agency causing the staffing shortages by not funding DHS is simultaneously the most vocal in blaming those shortages for the wait times.
One thing passengers can do: The TSA agents at your checkpoint are working for $0 today. They will be paid eventually — federal law guarantees back pay once the shutdown ends, typically within days. They know that. But knowing eventual back pay is coming does not pay rent today. A quiet “thank you” at the checkpoint, and not adding to their stress if lines are long, costs nothing.
Follow these steps before leaving for the airport this Spring Break.
Step 1 — Know your airport’s current status before you leave home ✈️ Check the TSA wait time app: apps.tsa.dhs.gov or search “[your airport name] TSA wait time” for live data ✈️ Check the airport’s official X/Twitter account — Hobby, ATL, MSY, and DFW have all been posting real-time updates during the shutdown
Step 2 — Arrive earlier than you think you need to
| Airport | Recommended Arrival Before Departure |
|---|---|
| Houston Hobby (HOU) | 4 hours |
| New Orleans (MSY) | 3 hours (weekends/Mon AM) |
| Atlanta (ATL) | 3 hours |
| Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) | 2.5 hours |
| JFK New York | 3 hours domestic / 3.5 international |
| Austin (AUS) through March 16 | 2.5–3 hours |
| Charlotte Douglas (CLT) | 2.5 hours |
| George Bush IAH | 2 hours |
| Denver (DEN) / Chicago ORD | Standard 2 hours |
Step 3 — Use PreCheck if you have it At Hobby: 3 minutes vs 90 minutes. This difference is real, confirmed, and will likely persist through Spring Break. If you have PreCheck or Global Entry — use it. Every airport. Every lane. All shutdown period.
Step 4 — Pack to clear security fast ✈️ Laptop in easily accessible pocket of carry-on — out at standard lanes, stays in bag at PreCheck ✈️ Shoes: lace-up boots will cost you 2 minutes at standard lanes — slip-ons are faster ✈️ Liquids: 3-1-1 bag at the top of your bag, ready to pull immediately ✈️ Large metal belt buckles and thick-soled shoes: remove before entering the queue, not at the bin
Step 5 — If your flight is cancelled or significantly delayed Under DOT rules effective 2024, airlines must provide automatic cash refunds for cancellations. The key rules: ✈️ Cancellation → You are owed a full cash refund if you choose not to travel — no vouchers required ✈️ Significant delay (domestic: 3+ hours; international: 6+ hours) → You are owed a full cash refund if you choose not to travel ✈️ Weather delays: No fixed cash compensation — but you are owed rebooking on the next available flight ✈️ What to say: “I am requesting a full cash refund under the DOT refund rule for this cancellation.”
Today — March 13, 2026 — is Day 27 of the DHS shutdown and the day 61,000 TSA agents receive their first completely empty paycheck. More than 300 have already quit. Absence rates have tripled at major hubs. Hobby reached 53% officer callouts on a single Saturday. The standard lane at Hobby averages 90 minutes. The PreCheck lane at the same airport, the same morning, averages 3 minutes.
Congress debated the shutdown on the Senate floor on Wednesday and went home without a deal. The House is out for a week. No funding fix is coming before at least March 20. Spring Break Week 1 is operating entirely within this environment.
The survival rule for Spring Break 2026 is simple: add 90 minutes to whatever you thought you needed, use PreCheck at every opportunity, and keep every receipt if your flight is cancelled or significantly delayed.
If you are flying in the next 10 days: check your airport’s TSA wait time before you leave home. Arrive earlier than you think you need to. And if you’re at Hobby — get PreCheck. The 87-minute difference is the most valuable thing you can know before you drive to the airport today.
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Posted By : Vinay
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