Could your airport close if TSA screeners don’t show up to work? Here’s what experts say | CNN

The stalemate in Washington, DC over funding the Department of Homeland Security has led to hourslong airport security lines and frustrated travelers, but now passengers could see some airports closed altogether, the Transportation Security Administration is warning. “It’s not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports, particularly smaller ones, if call-out rates go up,” TSA’s acting deputy administrator, Adam Stahl, said Tuesday. While TSA does not technically have the power to unilaterally close an airport, passengers and crews must be screened before planes can take off and if there is no one to do that, they cannot fly. “We make these determinations on an airport-by-airport basis,” Stahl told CNN Wednesday. “As the weeks continue, our TSA officers, as long as they don’t get paid, they’re going to continue to call out, they can’t afford to come in, and they’re going to quit altogether.” It’s the latest cascading effect of the monthlong lapse in funding for DHS. Democrats and Republicans are at a standstill in a fight over immigration reform. TSA workers won’t see another paycheck for work during the shutdown until t