Airline CEOs Join Forces in Letter Demanding Congress Get Their Act Together and End Schumer Shutdown – RedState
The partial government shutdown has lasted for nearly a month, with Democrats refusing to budge on their demands for reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although ICE is fully funded due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, other departments like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are not, leaving the country at risk of attack and creating travel nightmares at airports.
On Sunday, 10 CEOs of the largest airlines joined forces to tell Congress, enough is enough!
Today, the @washingtonpost released an open letter to Congress from 10 aviation CEOs – representing the largest US passenger and cargo carriers – who stressed the importance of paying federal aviation workers, including TSA agents, US customs clearance agents and air traffic… pic.twitter.com/apeFSIW2xP
– Airlines for America (@AirlinesDotOrg) March 15, 2026
The tweet continues:
Today, the @washingtonpost released an open letter to Congress from 10 aviation CEOs — representing America’s largest passenger and cargo carriers — who stressed the importance of paying federal aviation workers, including TSA agents, U.S. customs clearance agents and air traffic controllers, during government shutdowns.
The letter highlights that tens of thousands of TSA employees are not paid, placing unfair stress on their lives and the lives of their families:
The CEOs of major U.S. airlines on Sunday urged Congress to act quickly to end the 29-day partial government shutdown that has forced 50,000 airport security officers to work without pay, warning it could further disrupt U.S. air travel.
Absences of Transportation Security Administration agents have already disrupted travel at some major airports over the past week, raising alarms as the busy spring break travel season continues.
“Too many travelers have to wait in extraordinarily long — and painfully slow — lines at checkpoints,” the CEOs of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Alaska Air and others wrote in an open letter to Congress.
ASHAMED: Democrats Reveal Maximum Hypocrisy and Incredible Demand as They Continue to Block DHS Funding
Democrats mock Americans as unpaid TSA agents resign in droves over Schumer shutdown
Although Democrats attempt to portray the partial shutdown as the cause of Republican intransigence, the blame clearly lies with them. Unprepared to meet the demands of prime time, they’re acting like they’ve won the House, the Senate, and the Oval Office in 2024 — but they’ve lost all three.
As former President Barack Obama arrogantly told Republican lawmakers in 2009, shortly after taking office, “elections have consequences.” Instead of remembering this maxim, Democrats are behaving like children who didn’t get what they wanted and took the ball home. This would just be political theater, but in this case it directly endangers Americans, as we have experienced multiple terrorist attacks since the beginning of US operations against Iran.
Bringing the Department of Homeland Security to its knees right now over disputes over a specific department is a dereliction of duty.
The CEOs went on to say that this kind of game should never happen again when it comes to air travel:
“First, leaders should immediately come together to reach an agreement on funding the Department of Homeland Security. Second, they must act to ensure that this problem does not happen again,” they added.
Last fall, a 43-day government shutdown led to widespread flight disruptions and the FAA ordered a 10% reduction in flights at major airports. “Once again, air travel is a political football amid yet another government shutdown,” the CEOs wrote.
TSA lines longer than 3 hours for travelers.
More than 300 TSA agents who have resigned.
A $0 salary for those who continue to serve.
Enough is enough.
We must no longer play politics with the lives of Americans. The Democrats’ shutdown of DHS must end now. pic.twitter.com/VsHc71TOA9
-TSA (@TSA) March 14, 2026
The Republican Party should remind voters of the Democrats’ shenanigans daily until November 3.
Editor’s note: The 2026 midterm elections will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both houses of Congress.
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