The Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal B has been closed indefinitely, the airport announced Sunday.
The Houston airport announced on Twitter that the TSA security checkpoint at Terminal B was closed and passengers were rerouted to other terminals.
"Due to staffing issues associated with the partial shutdown of the federal government, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint and the ticketing counter in Terminal B at George Bush Intercontinental Airport remains closed," the airport said in a statement.
“Shortage of TSA workers, unpaid during the US gov’t shutdown, is causing this change,” wrote Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Many TSA agents at airports around the country have been calling in sick. TSA agents are among the hundreds of thousands federal employees being asked to work for no pay during the shutdown.
More TSA headaches:
Miami International Airport was also forced to shut down one of its terminals over the weekend as a result of the shortage of security screeners.
In Atlanta, a Delta hub and the busiest airport in the world, lines stretched as long as an hour and a half amid a shortage of screeners.
“At a time when the world’s busiest airport has its biggest crowds, there were at least six security lanes closed,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “Passengers waited in lines that stretched through the terminal and were winding through baggage claim.”
CNN reported that hundreds of workers had been calling in sick at New York’s JFK airport and airports around the country.
Trump’s border wall shutdown costs US billions:
The shutdown, which is now the longest in American history, has continued because of President Donald Trump’s demand for roughly $5.7 billion in funding for his proposed border wall on the Southern border.
According to S&P Global Ratings, the shutdown has already cost the US economy an estimated $3.6 billion and projected that the total losses would reach $5.7 billion within two weeks if the shutdown continues.
Trump made clear that he has no plans to end the shutdown anytime soon on Monday.
“I’m not interested. I want to get it solved. I don’t want to just delay it. I want to get it solved,” he told reporters.
