The federal government may stop TSA PreCheck during the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday.
Noem previously said the department would suspend PreCheck operations last weekend but quickly reversed course and kept the faster, prescreened security lanes open.
However, she put the suspension back on the table Wednesday in an interview with CNN.
“As we go forward and without funding for DHS… we’ll have to prioritize where the most travelers go through their security checkpoints,” Noem told the network. “We prioritize security lanes as we can staff them. So the ones that use the most travelers, which (are) the standard lanes, will be prioritized because most of the traveling public goes through those lanes.”
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security has been held up in Congress, with Democrats so far refusing to back President Donald Trump’s vast deportation campaign. The showdown began shortly after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
In last year’s 43-day government shutdown, PreCheck remained open for travelers, though hundreds of flights were canceled at major airports because of a lack of air traffic controllers.
Because air traffic controllers are not part of DHS — the major department affected by the ongoing partial shutdown — they’re being paid as usual this time, minus an anticipated pay raise.
But the government has already suspended the Global Entry program less than three weeks into the current shutdown. Global Entry allows prescreened, low-risk travelers to use expedited operations when entering the United States. Experts say it can cut customs wait times from 30-90 minutes to roughly 5-10 minutes.
“As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly,” the agency said Sunday.
