The on-going Government shutdown is now the longest in US history. Today marks the 24th day of the shutdown, and over 800,000 government employees are working without pay. Due to unpaid working conditions, many employees have called out sick.
Government employees include those at the post office, at national monuments, and in the military. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is a government-funded entity, and all employees are working unpaid—including air traffic control and aviation safety inspectors.
Due to the current working conditions of the TSA employees, an incident just recently occurred that has many shaken up.
Government Shutdown: Gun on Delta Flight
A traveler carrying a firearm boarded a Delta flight from Atlanta to Tokyo on January 3rd.
“TSA has determined standard procedures were not followed and a passenger did in fact pass through a standard screening TSA checkpoint with a firearm at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the morning of January 3,” a TSA spokesman told CNN in a statement.
No one was harmed by the incident.
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The security breach came two weeks into the government shutdown. TSA employees were required to work but have not still been paid. TSA is still dismissing suggestions that the government shutdown had anything to do with the security lapse. TSA screeners have struggled to detect weapons even in the absence of a shutdown.
Every so often, undercover teams test TSA screeners at various airports. Back in 2015, the acting administrator for the TSA was reassigned after a report found that in these undercover tests every single airport screener failed to detect explosives and weapons. This goes to show that it wasn’t just the government shutdown that caused the lapse in security—as this may be an ongoing issue in the procedures run by TSA.
TSA is trying to help its employees in this tough time, and yesterday announced it would award bonuses to those who worked during the holiday season. The bonus is only $500 though. It remains unknown at this time when the budget will be passed, and the government shutdown will be lifted. At press time, it doesn’t look like it is close to being completed, but miracles do happen.
Featured Image: Depositphotos © Boarding2Now
