If you really want to get mad about the chaos unfolding at the Atlanta airport, consider a bill from Texas Sen. John Cornyn that passed the Senate unanimously last week.
The bill would stop members of Congress from getting a little-known perk when they’re flying in and out of American airports, namely skipping the security lines manned by the Transportation Security Administration.
“As many Americans probably don’t know, but most of us in Washington do know, airports around the country allow members of Congress to bypass the usual TSA security screening process at airports nationwide,” Cornyn said on the floor of the U.S. Senate. “In other words, they get to skip the line.”
You read that right. The same members of Congress who have failed to fund the TSA for the last six weeks may or may not be waiting in the unimaginably long security lines they’re causing. They don’t all use the perk, but according to Cornyn, they do all have the option.
As Cornyn pointed out in his floor speech, the loophole may also have accounted for the lack of urgency from some members of Congress to find a resolution to the funding impasse causing more than 100,000 TSA agents to go unpaid and left far more Americans stranded in lines the agency can no longer fully staff.
That perk is just one of a bundle that have made flying a lot easier for the frequent flyers in Congress, who often are on an airplane twice a week or more commuting to Washington and back.
Along with skipping the lines, some members of Congress also request local police escorts to their gates. And they all get access to major airlines’ dedicated congressional service desks to book trips, make last-minute changes and even reserve seats on one, two or three flights on the same day, depending on congressional vote schedules.
In regular times, these could be seen as prudent security measures for high-profile flyers or simply good customer service for some of the airlines’ best customers. But taken together, they also inoculate Congress from the chaos Washington is causing.
Atlanta’s Delta Air Lines announced this week that it is suspending some elite services for members of Congress, including airport escorts and “red coat” service, until the TSA is fully funded. However, its congressional reservations desk remains open.
“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” the statement read. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.”
A spokesperson for Delta told the AJC that House and Senate members will now be treated like all flying passengers, according to their SkyMiles status. In other words, just like you and me.
Expect other airlines to follow suit as anger from CEO’s to everyday travelers grows at the only people with the power to solve this unnecessary and self-inflected mess — namely our leaders in Washington.
Speaking of those leaders, it’s always been at the discretion of each member of Congress whether they take advantage of the special access they have at airports.
Despite a pile of accusations from Republicans on social media, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said that the Democrat has sometimes been escorted by airport personnel in the past, he has been waiting in the same lines as everybody else this week, including on Monday to get to Washington for votes.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said he has not flown in more than a week, but does not use the TSA perk either. And U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, one of Ossoff’s GOP Senate challengers, said the congressman does use the Delta desk like all the other members of Congress but also does not skip the TSA lines when he flies.
“When (Collins) flies to vote this week, he will be standing in line with the thousands of passengers who needed to arrive early because Jon Ossoff voted to shut down DHS to protect illegal aliens,” Collins’ spokesperson said.
I included that last part accusing Ossoff for the shutdown because the finger-pointing coming out of Washington over the TSA shutdown may be the only thing more enraging than the fact that the TSA agents aren’t getting paid themselves.
If you are one of the many Americans looking for someone to blame for the last six weeks of dysfunction, yes, you could have blamed Senate Democrats’ opening bid to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security to push the Trump administration to reform its aggressive immigration enforcement measures.
Then you can move on to blaming Republicans for repeatedly refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security, while setting the immigration section of the bill aside for further, in-depth debate, which it sorely needs. A bill from Warnock to fund TSA alone was also blocked by Republicans.
It looked like a breakthrough could be near on Sunday when Senate Majority Leader John Thune went to President Donald Trump to pitch a compromise to fund DHS apart from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, only for Trump to announce he won’t support anything unless it also includes an unrelated election overhaul and a GOP-base favorite of banning boys from playing in girls’ sports.
“Let Leader Thune clearly identify those few ‘Republicans’ that are Voting against AMERICA. They will never be elected again!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
If you’re looking for someone to blame now, there is your answer. And if you’re flying soon and the House passes Cornyn’s bill to stop the TSA line-skipping perk, at least you’ll have a member of Congress in line to keep you company while you wait.
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