The Department of Homeland Security might again suspend TSA PreCheck by prioritizing “standard” safety lanes on the airport amid the partial authorities shutdown, Secretary Kristi Noem instructed NCS.
It comes after the division walked back its decision over the weekend to pause TSA PreCheck, which permits vacationers to get via airport safety extra shortly, amid an ongoing DHS shutdown. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry program stays paused.
“As we go forward and without funding for DHS, if we end up in a situation where these TSA officers have to go get other jobs and provide for their families, we’ll have to prioritize where the most travelers go through their security checkpoints,” Noem instructed NCS.
“We prioritize security lanes as we can staff them. So the ones that use the most travelers, which is the standard lanes, will be prioritized because most of the traveling public goes through those lanes,” she added.
Meanwhile, Noem denied that the division reversed its determination on halting PreCheck, saying, “We never reversed the decision. We just talked about it. What priorities we’d have to make if we had the situation where call outs went high.”
TSA PreCheck and Global Entry weren’t paused throughout final yr’s authorities shutdown, which lasted 43 days.