Some Indianapolis TSA agents have recently quit as the partial government shutdown continues.
Kevin Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 618, told WISH-TV that about half a dozen TSA agents have left the agency since last month and more departures could be coming soon. Workers are still trying to recover financially from the record-long 43-day shutdown last fall.
“A lot of my officers are trying to pay back the loans that they took out to survive the first,” Smith said. “We had two or three paychecks and then boom, here we are again.”
The U.S. federal government has been partially shut down twice in 2026. In both occurrences, Congress has argued about reforms to federal immigration enforcement, with Senate Democrats blocking funding to the Department of Homeland Security.
While most DHS law enforcement workers are still getting paid during the shutdown because of money from the Big Beautiful Bill Act, federal employees with other agencies like FEMA and TSA are not.
“A lot of the general public has no clue that we’re even shut down, that we’re not getting paid,” said Smith.
Friday will be the first full paycheck the agents will miss, according to Smith, as spring travel picks up at the airport this week.
“The 14th will be the day that it’ll start hitting that there’s no paycheck and we’re expected to be here whether we’re getting paid or not,” he said.
About 240 TSA agents currently work at Indianapolis International Airport. Agents working at the smaller airports in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, and South Bend bring the statewide total to nearly 370.
2 comments
Working in Automotive, since 1995, i once had a job which expected we set aside two weeks of pay.
At one point in time, Indiana, had a 2-week-waiting-period for Unemployment benefits. So, while my work was certain to be shut down for 4 weeks during the year..
2 weeks during the 4th of July
2 weeks around Christmas & New Year’s
2 weeks were fronted by me, as “unpaid” holidays, wanted, or not..
2 weeks is tough to compensate for, but 6 weeks is too much for anyone, ..even if they receive “back pay”.
Hard to work Security, in the government sector, when they can’t even Secure a paycheck for their essential employees.
To be essential, expected to be there… while a paycheck wasn’t?
While i understand, and my heart goes out to these individuals across our great nation… How can we expect this system to be perfect?
This IS the government, after all; rather expected, is it not?
One would think that my tax dollars would be secretly funding some Paycheck Reserve.
In Automotive, i’ve had to take heed of my own short-comings. …i guess this IS their way, by leaving!
Personally… I think that the government needs to either de-commercialise the airline industry, or let it go completely.
If it isn’t funded through its own measures, it shouldn’t be funded as a separate government front.
Airlines should be funding this governmental assurance for safety.
Trump should have never allowed the government to reopen without this funding in the first place.
Sentiment was very much against the Democrats, and they were getting desperate. In comes the white knight GOP and hands the Dems a really convenient way out of that mess, and now the Dems have leverage to hold ICE funding up forever.
It was a tactical disaster.