Absenteeism has increased among them to such an extent that queues have lengthened at American airports, and it is not uncommon to have to wait for several hours to reach the boarding gate.
Billionaire Elon Musk proposed on Saturday, March 21 to pay the salaries of security checkpoint agents in American airports who, considered essential personnel, are working without pay due to a partial budget paralysis since mid-February. “I would like to offer to pay the salaries of (Transportation Security Administration) TSA employees during the budget impasse that negatively impacts the lives of so many Americans in the country’s airports,” Elon Musk posted on his own network.
Since February 14, funding for the DHS – the department responsible for security checkpoints in airports – has been frozen due to a deep disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over immigration police (ICE) practices. Due to this partial “shutdown,” thousands of DHS federal employees have been furloughed, while thousands of others in essential roles continue to work. In both cases, salaries will not be paid until lawmakers agree on a budget for the DHS, on which ICE depends. TSA employees – about 50,000 people – have not received full pay since March 13.
Queue at Airports
According to various estimates, the average annual salary of these agents is between $50,000 and $60,000, totaling between $2.5 and $3 billion for a whole year. Due to this situation, absenteeism has increased within their ranks – some working elsewhere while waiting for lawmakers to reach an agreement – while others have resigned. As a result, queues at security checkpoints have lengthened, and it is not uncommon to now wait several hours at American airports to pass through this checkpoint and reach the boarding gate.
Elon Musk is the richest person on the planet, with a fortune estimated by the latest annual Forbes ranking – published on March 10 – at $839 billion, compared to $342 billion a year earlier. “My ‘net worth’ is almost entirely due to the shares held in Tesla and SpaceX,” Elon Musk posted on X in mid-February, claiming to have “less than 0.1% of that in liquidity.”
