ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed last month as lawmakers remained at odds over restrictions for federal immigration agents. That lapse left many federal employees who work at airports on the job without pay.<\/p>\n
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority is hosting a food drive to assist Transportation Security Administration agents and other federal workers who are working without pay during the funding lapse. The drive will collect nonperishable food, cleaning and laundry supplies, diapers, pet supplies and $10 gift cards for gas or grocery stores.<\/p>\n
TSA agents screen thousands of travelers every day and air traffic controllers keep flights moving, a point travelers stressed as a reason to support unpaid federal workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s awful for them,\u201d traveler Lauralai Wild said. \u201cI hope it\u2019s resolved quickly and that they go back to getting the pay for the work that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
[WATCH BELOW: Rename MCO? The Orlando airport debate is getting heated]<\/p>\n
One traveler suggested a longer-term fix to avoid unpaid work for air travel employees during funding lapses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel [air travel] is something that\u2019s federally authorized. Anything that\u2019s federally authorized, they should pay for. So that\u2019s something that I think there should be a fund set away for people who are working,\u201d Justin Brown said. \u201cIt makes me sad. Anybody that\u2019s working I feel like should get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to donate, please bring your contributions to the following locations:<\/p>\n
Orlando International Airport (Terminal C Departures Curb): From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, March 6, through Monday, March 9, and additional days as needed<\/p>\n
Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), 465 Rickenbacker Drive, Orlando: From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until further notice<\/p>\n
Passengers may drop off items at the Information booths, located on the Departures level at Terminals A, B and C.<\/p>\n
GOAA encourages passengers to use the FlyMCO website or Orlando MCO app to stay up to date on airport operations during this time.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed last month as lawmakers remained at odds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1335,139,141,3847,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-180568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-orange-county","9":"tag-orlando","10":"tag-orlando-headlines","11":"tag-orlando-international-airport","12":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}