Homeland Security Chair To TSA: What’s Your Shutdown Plan For ‘Mass Call Outs’?

The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security wrote to the TSA administrator Monday seeking answers on a reported wave of TSA agents calling out of work during the partial government shutdown.

Citing CNN reporting “that hundreds of TSA officers from at least four major airports called out from work last week,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) expressed his concern to TSA Administrator David Pekoske that “if wait times and public pressure increase, some TSA managers may try to manage the effects of the shutdown in ways that are detrimental to security.”

Thompson asked Pekoske how many TSA officers had called out of work each day of the now-17-day shutdown, whether the TSA had any changes to security procedures during the shutdown and whether the agency had plans “to address mass call outs or resignations among its workforce,” among other things.

CNN first reported the letter. Read it in full below: