Airport Lines Fuel Travel Industry Pressure to End DHS Shutdown

Long airport security lines are mobilizing lobbyists in the travel sector to mount new pressure on lawmakers and the administration to resolve the Homeland Security Department funding lapse.

Chris Sununu, president and CEO of the airline industry’s lobbying group, said Tuesday he will have meetings later this week at the White House. Industry CEOs also are planning administration sit-downs, he said, and travel industry associations are working to drive phone calls and missives to lawmakers.

Industry coalitions are holding meetings urging their members to flood Capitol Hill offices with messages from their constituents. They want the department reopened so that Transportation Security Administration workers, who provide security at the nation’s airports, get their paychecks.

TSA employees and the travel sector broadly are caught in an impasse over funding the department because it also includes the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which faced a backlash after federal agents killed two US citizens during a high-profile enforcement campaign in Minnesota. The partial shutdown began Feb. 14.

During its initial weeks, the DHS shutdown received little attention or urgency, Sununu said.

“Typical to Washington, DC, they have to actually see and feel some pain,” said Sununu, the former GOP New Hampshire governor who now leads Airlines for America, in an interview with Bloomberg Government.

Other lobbyists agreed.

“It seems to be reaching an inflection point, where the general public will now start to realize what is happening and pressure members of Congress in one direction or the other,” said Mark Williams, a principal at Ferox Strategies.

Long security lines over the weekend added more urgency to the situation, which Sununu and other advocates for the travel sector said would get worse if TSA employees don’t get paid.

Some TSA workers take on temporary gigs, such as driving for Uber or DoorDash or working at restaurants, Sununu said.

The current partial shutdown is the former governor’s second government funding lapse since he took the top airline lobby job in September. Sununu said after the six-week funding lapse last year, it sometimes took months for workers to receive their back pay — something fresh on their minds during this partial shutdown.

“The money will come, but it doesn’t come immediately,” Sununu said.

Sununu said he was hopeful that Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead DHS, replacing Kristi Noem, could serve as a “reset button” to allow for more productive talks between President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats.

Lawmakers, though, expressed their partisan frustrations on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said Democrats had declined meetings over the issue. “If you actually want to see reforms, then wouldn’t you get in a room and figure out how to do that?” she said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his party did not reject sit-downs: “That’s a lot of bull.”

Republican lobbyist Stewart Verdery, founder of Monument Advocacy whose clients include the US Travel Association and Alaska Airlines, said it’s not the first time lawmakers “have tried to hold the travel process hostage to unrelated policy goals.”

He said most Americans would sour on the DHS shutdown if airport security delays extend during spring break travel.

The industry, too, he said, approached the closure cautiously at first because it didn’t want to weigh in on the fights over immigration enforcement.

“But as this has dragged on, you see the rhetoric ratchet up,” he said.