TSA rolls out video warning travelers of long wait times, blaming 'Democrat shutdown'
The Transportation Security Administration rolled out a new video at airports across the country Friday warning travelers of longer-than-usual wait times and staffing shortages, blaming Democrats for the partial government shutdown.
"You may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security," the agency's video message says.
At several airports nationwide, passengers have seen security wait times ranging from 20-30 minutes to as long as two hours at certain points, with travelers being advised to arrive at the airport early to allow adequate time for screening.
The roughly 30-second video message was released as TSA officers begin receiving their first $0 paycheck Friday, with the length of the shutdown nearing a month. The message also encourages travelers to show gratitude toward the TSA officers.
"The TSA Officers you are interacting with have shown up to work despite having missed paychecks. Please take the opportunity to thank the dedicated men and women of the TSA when you fly today," the video message says.
Assaults on TSA officers have increased during the shutdown, Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl told ABC.
"We've seen increases in assaults on our TSA officers which is always completely unacceptable, particularly unacceptable right now," he said in an interview. "And so we just ask our passengers to please be respectful, thank them because they're doing an incredibly difficult job under incredibly difficult circumstances."
Stahl said the agency has "zero tolerance" for such behavior and works with the law enforcement authorities, including the Department of Justice, so those responsible face ramifications for their actions.
Though the rate of unscheduled absences by TSA officers has more than doubled since the shutdown began, Stahl said there are no safety concerns about TSA's operations and that the agency's focus remains on the impact to wait times.
"We don't have any significant concerns about the integrity of the screening process right now as it stands, but again this is going to continue to worsen as the days continue and we're really focused and really urge Senate Democrats to get back to the drawing table, get back to negotiating table, so we can get back to normal operations," Stahl said.
Some major airports across the country, including, LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, Seattle Tacoma International and Colorado Springs said they are not playing the video message citing its partisan and political nature.
The Port of Portland, which manages Portland International Airport, said it received TSA's request to display the video messaging, but the Port did not consent to playing the video.
A similar video featuring outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was rolled out by the agency during last year's government shutdown. It also received pushback from several major airports that refused to play it, citing the Hatch Act -- a law that restricts the political activities of federal employees, as well as some state and local employees who are involved in or work in federally funded programs.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a fourth vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund the agency without any reforms to ICE and CBP.
The package would have provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security through September. The agency has been shut down since Feb. 14.
Ahead of the vote, Democrats once again attempted to get support to fund other agencies, besides ICE and CBP, that are a part of DHS and that have been shut down. After their effort to fund all other agencies besides CBP and ICE was blocked Wednesday by Republicans, Democrats took a piecemeal approach Thursday, making individual requests to pass funding for TSA, CISA, Coast Guard and FEMA.
"What Republicans are saying is that we want to hold TSA, our airports, the protection of our coastline, the defense of this nation from cyberattacks and our response to emergencies hostage to their determination to continue to fund a law enforcement operation at ICE that is out of control," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during a speech on the floor as part of the Democratic effort to pass the bills to fund the individual agencies.
Republicans blocked each of those efforts, arguing that the whole of DHS should be funded.
"To my Democrat colleagues, if you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee you it will get voted down because it is an extremely unpopular position. We are not going to let you get to that result by way of holding everyone else hostage. If you want to support all the agencies in this negotiated bill you have a way to do it," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mont., said.
ABC News' Allison Pecorin contributed to this story.
