Multiple airports in Texas are refusing to play a video at their security checkpoints in which Homeland Security Secretary\u00a0Kristi Noem blames Democrats for the ongoing federal government shutdown, citing advertising policies that bar the use of political content.<\/p>\n
Airports commonly display videos from the head of homeland security on screens at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, but these messages are usually apolitical. This changed when Department of Homeland Security officials directed TSA to display a video that begins with Noem outlining TSA\u2019s priorities and ends with her expressing hope that \u201cDemocrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government,\u201d Noem says in the video. \u201cBecause of this, many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas Love Field Airport, Corpus Christi International Airport and San Antonio International Airport told The Texas Tribune that the video is not on display at their TSA checkpoints.<\/p>\n
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport\u2019s decision to not display the video is consistent with its longstanding policy that prohibits political advertising, said Zachary Greiner, a spokesperson for the airport.<\/p>\n
Dallas Love Field Airport\u2019s advertising policy also \u201cprohibits political or issue-oriented content,\u201d said spokesperson Patrick Clarke. Additionally, the airport has not received the permit application required for such videos.<\/p>\n
Corpus Christi International Airport and San Antonio International Airport are also not running the video at this time, according to statements from the airports that did not include explanations.<\/p>\n
Jacquelyn Eckmann, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, said the airport\u2019s checkpoints do not have the ability to display the video because they are not equipped with video monitors.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for El Paso International Airport and the Houston Airport System did not respond to inquiries about whether they were airing Noem\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
As of May 2022, TSA employed nearly 50,000 officers across the country, with more than 4,000 in Texas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of these workers are required to work without pay during government shutdowns.<\/p>\n
This has contributed to staffing shortages and flight delays across the country, including at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Monday.<\/p>\n
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Texas Tribune that the government shutdown has created challenges for TSA employees, but that security operations are largely unchanged.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple airports in Texas are refusing to play a video at their security checkpoints in which Homeland Security…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2109,82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-4010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-mysa-heds","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","11":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}