The TSA funding crisis is wreaking havoc at Big Apple airports, with frustrated air travelers waiting up to three hours just to check in for their flights.
“It’s insane,” stranded Texas traveler Chip B, 66, said Sunday after spending 45 minutes on the pre-check line at LaGuardia Airport’s packed Terminal B. “If this is about getting short-handed with TSA agents, c’mon, let’s get them hired.”
Chris, a 54-year-old Connecticut resident, had harsher words for US lawmakers.
“Get their s—t together,” he snapped. That’s what they need to do.
“My big thing is TSA work isn’t a great job in the first place,” he said while trying to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale. “They’re not getting paid while the politicians who are screwing up everything are getting paid.”
One frazzled airline worker summed it up for The Post: “It’s crazy.”
The airport chaos has hit the entire country, as a Capitol Hill squabble has agents from the Transportation Safety Administration working without pay. Many are staying home or calling it quits while spring break travelers scurry to get home.
TSA agents remaining on the job missed their first paycheck last week.
The holdup is a feud between the GOP and Democrats, who want to tie funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA, to more oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Both sides are blaming the other – while airline passengers mob airport terminals.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jared Everett, in New York on vacation with his wife, said the mess has already delayed his 4:30 p.m. flight to Charlotte by 40 minutes.
“This has been pretty irresponsible of our lawmakers to put us in this position,” said Everett, 53. “We deserve better. They’re not the most functional group of people we’ve seen.”
President Trump said he’ll ease the backlog by sending ICE agents into major airports beginning on Monday, a move some Queens air travelers said is welcomed.
“Whatever helps facilitate the movement of people,” Chris said. “It’s not their their job. I’d rather have our government get their act together.”
This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.
