A former Obama administration official warned Thursday that the government shutdown could “break the back of aviation security” in the United States.
Democrats have filibustered funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over operations by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), demanding new restrictions on the agency after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in January in Minneapolis during demonstrations opposing federal immigration enforcement operations. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson told “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers resigning, airport lines would grow longer. (RELATED: Elon Musk Offers To Pay Salaries Of TSA Agents Working Through Government Funding Impasse)
“So what I’m going to say here is a nonpartisan statement, not directed at Democrats or Republicans, directed at both in Congress. In my judgment what is happening right now is sheer madness,” Johnson said. “We are in a heightened threat environment because we have gone to war — and that’s what it is, a war, it’s not an operation — we’ve gone to war against the government of Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Yet the government — the department of our government that is there to protect the American people is defunded right now and has been defunded for the last month and a half.”
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“When you drill down, the agencies of DHS that the Democrats are most angry at, CBP and ICE, are actually being funded through discretionary funding, through aggressive reprogramming, and the agency of our government that interacts most with the American people, TSA, is not being funded right now.” Johnson continued.
President Donald Trump ordered ICE agents to airports to assist TSA during the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security to address long line in airports. Johnson claimed members of Congress wouldn’t be affected.
“I am concerned that what’s happening now is going to break the back of aviation security in this country. Hundreds of TSOs are quitting,” Johnson said. “In Atlanta and elsewhere — Atlanta is the busiest airport in our country, 40 percent of TSOs didn’t show up this week to work. The lines are four and five hours long, as you’ve been reporting, and Congress is about to go on their spring break.”
“Good luck getting there,” Brzezinski said, with Johnson adding, “And when — when they get to the airports, I guarantee you none of them will wait four or five hours in the lines.”
Delta Air Lines announced Tuesday it was shutting down “specialty services” for members of Congress due to the shutdown, depriving members of Congress of airport escorts and “red coat” service. The Senate is slated to vote on the funding measure for DHS on Thursday afternoon, but both sides are not close to a deal.
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