Travelers walk through near empty TSA screening corridors at Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington, DC, on March 30, 2026. Airports around the country started recovering from long lines as TSA Agents begin to receive their first paychecks after about 61,000 TSA employees had been working without pay since a partial government shutdown started Feb. 14. Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
Many U.S. airports reported significantly reduced security checkpoint wait times on March 30, with much of the worst pressure relieved after Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) officers received their first paychecks in weeks.
After seeing security lines that stretched for four hours during peak travel throughout the ongoing government shutdown, wait times at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport were down to 10 minutes or less on Monday.