TSA has been telling Americans for years that staffing shortages cause those two-hour security lines.
Now their own administrative record reveals what some of those screeners were actually doing.
And the answer TSA gave federal investigators should make every taxpayer furious.
TSA Official Time Pulled 277000 Hours From Airport Security in 2024
In fiscal year 2024, Transportation Security Administration employees spent 277,033.5 hours on taxpayer-funded union activity – time when screeners were doing paperwork for the American Federation of Government Employees instead of watching X-ray monitors for threats.
TSA itself calculated the salary cost at more than $7.3 million.
That is the equivalent of 34,600 eight-hour workdays – gone.
Under the terms of the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, union representatives assigned to 100 percent official time perform zero screening duties.
They skip proficiency assessments entirely, and their security certifications can lapse – requiring additional rounds of training and testing before they are cleared to return to the checkpoint.
TSA's own administrative record – filed as the Trump administration fights a federal court injunction keeping the union deal alive – puts all of it in writing.
The managers at Miami International Airport told investigators exactly what it looks like in practice: when certified screeners get pulled for union duties during busy travel periods, lanes open late and specialized security equipment sits undeployed.
Managers at airports across the country described schedule reshuffling and checkpoint staffing shortfalls that TSA itself acknowledged lead to longer lines and missed flights.
TSA Collective Bargaining Cost Taxpayers 7.3 Million Last Year in Salary Alone
The $7.3 million covers only the salary cost for official time.
The 2024 bargaining process alone drained another 20,200 combined staff hours and cost approximately $1.35 million in salaries and travel.
TSA identified 428 arbitration matters resolved since 2010 – routine cases alone consuming 7,207 attorney hours and 2,365 witness hours.
Some involved serious disciplinary matters. Others existed to determine whether an officer deserved pay for seven extra minutes – or how much advance warning counted as fair notice before a schedule change.
At one major hub, union administration consumed more than 1,000 hours monthly – with 80 of those hours per week representing screeners pulled entirely off checkpoint duty, the staffing equivalent of two officers gone.
Nationwide, unscheduled absences ran at 4.75 percent while the agreement was in force, dropped to 3.93 percent when it was suspended, and climbed back to 4.35 percent after reinstatement.
TSA's own data shows the union deal makes screeners less reliable.
The union insists collective bargaining protects officers and keeps passengers safe.
What it actually buys is a taxpayer-funded roster of full-time union operatives collecting government paychecks to serve the union – while the checkpoints they were hired to staff run short.
How a Federal Court Order Is Making Your Airport Security Wait Times Worse
Congress never granted TSA screeners collective bargaining rights.
Obama's TSA Administrator John Pistole handed them over in 2011 without a vote.
Biden's administration then reversed Trump-era reforms that had capped official time at 25 percent of any employee's schedule – reopening the door to unlimited union clock time on the taxpayer dime.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem moved to close it in March 2025, announcing the end of the collective bargaining agreement.
A federal judge in Seattle blocked her.
Noem moved again in September, signing a new declaration citing TSA's need for – in her words – "the maximum agility required to secure the traveling public from constantly evolving threats."
The court blocked her again.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals now has the Trump administration's appeal.
Government-wide, federal official time cost taxpayers $162.5 million in a single year before the Biden administration stopped tracking it entirely – the equivalent of nearly 2,000 full-time government employees doing nothing but union work on your dime.
At TSA, that subsidy doesn't just drain the budget – it pulls certified officers off active checkpoints and lets their security credentials expire, leaving airport managers scrambling to open lanes during the hours when threats are most likely to emerge.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin now carries the case Noem built to the 9th Circuit.
Courts do not run national security – and the 9th Circuit's decision will tell us whether judges in Seattle have any interest in that distinction.
Sources:
- Chip Rogers, "Why Do TSA Employees Spend so Much Time on Union Business?" The Daily Signal, October 2, 2026.
- Rachel Greszler, "Bill Would End Taxpayer-Funded Union Activities by Federal Employees," The Daily Signal, 2024.
- Elizabeth Harrington, "Taxpayers Paid $162.5 Million for Union Work," Washington Free Beacon, 2015.
- Orion Rummler, "TSA Tries to Sidestep Court Order by Canceling Union Again," Bloomberg Law, December 12, 2025.
- Rachel Riley, "DHS Can't Undo Order Halting TSA Union Deal Cancellation," Law360, July 28, 2026.