OPINION:
Left-wing zealots in Congress used federal employees as props in their fight for the rights of illegal aliens and hardened criminals. For more than a month, Democrats blocked funding for parts of the Department of Homeland Security. This meant those with non-essential functions twiddled their thumbs at home while those deemed essential clocked in without pay.
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Moreno, Ohio Republican, proposed a 2-week truce that would restore pay to the staff of FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, TSA and related agencies to allow budget negotiations to proceed without harming anyone. To encourage his colleagues to act swiftly, he would have also frozen senatorial salaries and travel perks until the job was done.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Democrat, moved to amend his proposal to only fund TSA, leaving the rest of DHS in the cold.
“What’s wrong with that is that there’s hundreds of thousands of government employees who for no fault of their own, who did nothing wrong, who had nothing to do with Minneapolis… They go to work every day, doing the best they can to keep us safe,” Mr. Moreno said.
Since his plan required unanimous consent, it failed. Liberals were engaged in pointless theater since everyone at DHS knew they’d receive back pay eventually. Many government credit unions offer customers low-interest loans or forbearance on mortgage payments during budgetary lapses. Even so, it’s not a pleasant way to operate.
Most of TSA’s card-carrying union membership has never voted for a Republican, yet Democrats had no qualms about holding their paychecks hostage. Progressives take all of their allies for granted and treat them with such disrespect in the cynical hope the blue-gloved crew would shirk their duty and call in sick. Many did so.
Without screeners, checkpoints closed, transferring the pain to the American public who faced extended waits and missed flights for political leverage. “They’re willing to jeopardize your travel in order to push their radical, America Last agenda,” Transportation Secretary Duffy explained on X.
Except it was smooth sailing at the 20 terminals around the nation that participate in the Screening Partnership Program where a private screening workforce is used instead of TSA. That kept the lines in cities such as San Francisco, Kansas City, Atlantic City, Sarasota and Tupelo free from Capitol Hill gridlock.
This program should be expanded. Since its inception more than two decades ago, TSA hasn’t caught any potential bombers. Its primary purpose is decorative. When the Government Accountability Office was interested in testing checkpoint precautions, it consistently found screening failures that went unaddressed for years.
“Technology performance can degrade over time; however, TSA does not ensure that technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployment to airports… In 2015 and 2016, DHS tested a sample of deployed explosives trace detection and bottled liquid scanner units and found that some no longer met detection requirements,” the government watchdog wrote in a 2019 report.
Under the administration of President Joseph R. Biden, the concern at TSA and GAO shifted to doing something about the impact of screening techniques on the feelings of cross-dressers and people wearing burqas. For each of those specially protected groups, screeners must hassle at least half-a-dozen innocent grandmothers to avoid looking bad in the statistics.
It’s time to drop the security charade and inside-the-Beltway theatrics. The president should open up more airports to the private screening option and consider replacing the agents who suddenly came down with the blue flu.
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