Travel industry stakeholders are breathing a sigh of relief after the House's Thursday vote to end the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
But in a series of statements, the industry groups remained critical of Congress for enabling the shutdown and then allowing it to last 75 days.
"While the bill passed today restores funding certainty for much of the DHS, there are no real winners in a shutdown," U.S. Travel Association Geoff Freeman said in a statement. "More than 1,100 TSA officers have already left the workforce, morale has been undermined and with just weeks until the World Cup, our preparedness has taken a step backward. We emerge from this disruption weaker, not stronger."
Thursday's House vote came as the funding that the DHS has been using to pay TSA officers by executive order since March 30 was set to run out next week. DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin had been sounding the alarm about another potential airport crisis.
When TSA officers worked without a paycheck between Feb. 14 and March 30, worker callouts spiked, causing periods of extremely long security lines at some airports, especially George Bush Intercontinental in Houston and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta.
The bill funds the DHS through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, with the exception of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose funding Democrats have refused to support unless Republicans agree to a series of measures geared toward putting more constraints on their actions.
The Senate version of the bill passed unanimously on April 2, but until Thursday, House speaker Mike Johnson had refused to bring it to the floor as he waited for a separate Republican-backed measure that would fund ICE and CBP.
The bill must now be signed by President Donald Trump to take effect.
Union reactions
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents TSA employees, said it celebrates the House passage. But union president Everett Kelley was still highly critical of Congress.
"While AFGE is pleased that Congress finally stepped up to do their jobs and fund DHS, it is unacceptable that it took them this long to do so," he said. "Too many times we have seen lawmakers use patriotic federal employees' livelihoods as leverage for political gains. Federal employees are not political pawns. They are not leverage. They are Americans -- and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."
Airlines for America, which represents the six largest U.S. carriers, offered similar thoughts.
"Congress must now turn to the important task of ensuring that the agencies on the frontlines of aviation security are never again used as leverage during future government shutdowns," CEO Chris Sununu said. "Federal aviation workers need to have paycheck predictability and financial stability so they can put food on the table, pay their rent and put gas in their cars. And the traveling public should never again be asked to bear the brunt of Congress' inaction."
The groups are calling for Congress to pass legislation that would guarantee TSA officers, as well as air traffic controllers and others who are required to work during shutdowns, will receive regular paychecks.