The tug-of-war between the two parties triggers an airport security crisis; Trump plans to issue an order to expedite overdue wages.

This article is republished from 【Xinhua News Agency】;

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump announced on March 26 that he would issue an executive order to release overdue pay to tens of thousands of U.S. airport security screening staff, in an effort to ease the chaos caused by long lines of travelers.

Trump said he would instruct the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mallin, to immediately pay wages to airport security screening personnel under the Transportation Security Administration, to deal with the current “emergency,” and “quickly put an end to the airport mess created by Democrats.”

Because Democrats and Republicans have deep disagreements over a Homeland Security funding bill, the Department of Homeland Security has not received regular appropriations since mid-February. A number of agencies under the department, including the Transportation Security Administration, have been affected. For more than a month, about 50,000 airport security screening staff have not been paid; most have worked without wages, and many have been forced to resign for a living, find other ways to make ends meet, or take sick leave to work and earn money.

According to the latest data, nearly 500 airport security screening staff have already resigned. In recent days, the average absence rate among U.S. airport security screeners has exceeded 10%, and in some airports the absence rate is even close to 50%.

Adam Starr, acting deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, told U.S. media in an interview that because they cannot get paid, some employees have been forced to sleep in their cars, and some people have even been forced to sell blood.

Large-scale absenteeism among security screeners has seriously affected U.S. air transportation. Combined with the upcoming spring break travel peak, long lines for passenger screening have formed at airports, and some people have even missed their flights. On the 24th, Naijie Dederick told reporters from CBS in the U.S. at Boston Logan Airport that he was scheduled to fly from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas the day before. He said he “waited in line for 6 to 8 hours,” still missed boarding, had to spend the night at the airport, and switched to a flight on the 24th. “The line starts downstairs and keeps going down to the basement level, and then lines up again toward the third floor,” he said. “But there are only two screeners.”

At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, the queue waiting for security screening has stretched all the way to outside the terminal building.

McNeill, acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, warned at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives on the 25th that if the budget standoff continued, the situation of massive absenteeism among airport security screeners would not be alleviated, and the agency might have to consider temporarily closing some airports.

Starr said that the longer the wage arrears persist, the greater the loss of Transportation Security Administration employees, which would further intensify the aviation passenger transportation crisis and even create national security risks.

On the 23rd, Trump dispatched personnel from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take part in airport security work, and on the 25th he also claimed that the National Guard might be redeployed to provide “more help.”

At present, negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security remain stuck in a deadlock. Earlier on the 26th, the Senate Majority Leader, Republican John Thune, said that Republicans have put forward a “final” proposal to Democrats regarding funding for the Department of Homeland Security. (Hui Xiaoshuang)

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