TSA officers skip work as paychecks stop during shutdown, airports face chaos nationwide

As the partial government shutdown continues to drag on, Transportation Security Administration officers are not getting their paychecks due to the lapse in funding at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Over the weekend, airports across the country faced long security delays, with TSA officers calling out of work.

There was a national callout rate of 10.19% on Sunday, a TSA spokesperson told Fox News Digital - that's the highest rate the agency has seen.

The airport itself posted video on its X account on Saturday showing travelers lined up at 4:30 a.m.

"We're expecting a record-breaking volume of people - there are about 38K of you flying out today," the caption said. 

"Please arrive at least 2.5 hours prior to your flight's departure for domestic."

The highest peak wait times seen in Austin were on March 13 at 90 minutes.

Not far away, John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) had a 28.2% callout rate, while Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey had a 13.83% callout rate.

Callouts during the shutdown through Sunday averaged 10.24% at EWR, 21.40% at JFK and 12.68% at LGA.

Over 300 airport security officers have left TSA since the start of the DHS shutdown, with unscheduled absences, a TSA official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

American travel website The Points Guy posted a video of Austin airport lines and captioned the post: "It's the TSA Hunger Games at many airports across the country."

"There are multiple entry points and sometimes CLEAR or PreCheck can be long. I got through Touchless TSA PreCheck in 2 minutes," the group suggested. "You can opt in to Touchless ID ASAP in your airline loyalty app."

The Points Guy's account also suggested passengers ask an employee in a red vest to point out the shortest line. 

"Explain if you're TSA Pre/CLEAR/Touchless. They are helpful, especially if you have kids, and they have lines for those with children or accommodations," the post continued.

Finally, passengers were advised to "be nice! Everyone is stressed, and TSA agents have missed a paycheck. Even if you have to wait, don't take it out on frontline officers."

Fox News Digital reached out to The Points Guy for further comment.

Deondre White, a TSA officer at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C., told Fox News Digital last week that officers are "financially trying to do the best that they can."

"I'm thankful for my family to be able to come to work and be able to provide gas [to travel to work] because the gas prices have been rising," he said. "However, there are a lot of officers here who do not have those resources or family commitments from others [to help them out]."