Transportation Security Officers have asked for more staffing resources for years, but our call has fallen on deaf ears in an austerity-obsessed Congress. After years of neglect, it's no wonder the situation has gotten as dire as it is today. And if something isn't done soon, the waits will only get longer and longer.
The TSA Officer workforce has declined to 42,000 from 47,000 in 2013 while passenger volume at U.S. airports has jumped 15 percent to 740 million a year. So long as Congress sits on its hands, that gap is only expected to widen.
The good news is that this is not a complicated problem. It's common sense that more airline passengers require more screeners to process them safely and quickly. The bad news is that Congress funded just a few hundred new screeners in its most recent budget, which won't even make a dent as the summer travel season heats up.