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A father of three felt that he had no other choice but to quit his job as a Transportation Security Administration officer and find other work as the partial government shutdown goes on.
Robert Echeverria worked the TSA checkpoints at Salt Lake City International Airport for nine years.
“I love the agency. I love the people that I worked with,” he said. “But it just, my family has to come first.”
With no paycheck or end in sight to the latest shutdown, which has so far lasted nearly a month, Echeverria made what he said was a difficult decision to quit. He’s among the more than 300 TSA officers who have quit since the shutdown began, according to agency statistics obtained by CBS News.
“I think the hardest thing is seeing the struggle that my wife was going through and not trying to bring more stress to her,” Echeverria said. “But seeing her cry every night, how am I going to feed my family? How am I going to survive?”
Increased sick calls
TSA officers are some of the lowest paid in the federal government, averaging $45,000-$55,000 per year.
The workers are now set to miss their first full paycheck of the partial shutdown this week.
Food pantries are opening up at airports across the country as TSA sick calls have more than doubled during the shutdown.
At Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, wait times on Sunday topped three hours after more than half of TSA officers called out.
On Thursday, Philadelphia International Airport temporarily closed one security checkpoint due to TSA staffing issues.
On X, Denver International Airport put out a plea for help to support TSA employees.
“Support the dedicated TSA employees working without pay by donating $10 and $20 grocery store and gas gift cards. Visa gift cards cannot be accepted,” the airport said in its post.
“It does concern me about the possibilities of operatives, bad guys who are wanting to try to exploit a perceived vulnerability because there’s not as many people at TSA showing up for work,” said former TSA Administrator John Pistole.
The Senate is expected to vote again on Thursday on a measure to fund DHS.
