While the word shutdown can be unsettling \u2014 especially for travelers \u2014 this one is not expected to be as severe or as long as past shutdowns.<\/p>\n
Still, thousands of federal workers across the country are now working without pay \u2014 including TSA officers at San Diego International Airport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hope-for-the-best, prepare-for-the-worst kind of situation,\u201dRobert Mack, a union representative with the American Federation of Government Employees who represents TSA workers told ABC 10News.<\/p>\n
That uncertainty is being felt by federal employees nationwide, particularly those with the Transportation Security Administration.<\/p>\n
Mack says employees are frustrated \u2014 but remain focused on keeping travelers safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here. We\u2019re working our hardest to get our job done \u2014 in our case, to make sure the traveling public is safe for flights,\u201d Mack said. \u201cBut we won\u2019t be able to get paid until they figure this out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shutdown could eventually mean longer security lines and more hassle for travelers \u2014 something many people at the airport say they are hoping to avoid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI travel a ton,\u201d one passenger said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping what happened before doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another traveler, Nathan, who was flying in from North Carolina, said the situation adds stress to an already busy travel day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to get there safely,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem as safe when people are stressed \u2014 missing work or not getting paid. I\u2019d love the government to work. That would be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike the record-setting 43-day shutdown in the past, this partial shutdown is not expected to have immediate impacts on the public.<\/p>\n
According to a contingency plan from the United States Department of Homeland Security, about 95 percent of TSA employees are considered essential personnel and are required to continue working.<\/p>\n
Mack says TSA workers are cautiously optimistic this shutdown will be resolved sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could go for a very long time,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope they\u2019re able to resolve things soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, like many federal workers, TSA officers are left waiting to see how long this shutdown lasts \u2014 and how long they will have to continue working without a paycheck.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just received our last paychecks this past weekend,\u201d Mack said. \u201cHopefully, they\u2019ll resolve this issue within the next couple of weeks before the next ones come through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the word shutdown can be unsettling \u2014 especially for travelers \u2014 this one is not expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[85332,74,25044,76,75,1292,2422,5173],"class_list":["post-179741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-partial-shutdown","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-airport","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-shutdown","tag-travel","tag-tsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}