US airlines warn over pause in two key travel programs amid DHS shutdown
A grouping of major U.S. airlines said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave travelers scant warning ahead of the temporary suspension of its PreCheck and Global Entry programs from Sunday, amid a shutdown of much of the agency.
The halt in the programs run by the DHS will begin from 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT), after the partial shutdown began last week, following the failure of Republicans and Democrats to clinch a deal on immigration enforcement reforms.
“Airlines for America is deeply concerned that … the traveling public will be, once again, used as a political football amid another government shutdown,” Chief Executive Chris Sununu said.
News of the suspensions came at “extremely short notice to travelers, giving them little time to plan accordingly,” he added in a statement, urging Congress to “get a deal done.”
A similar shutdown last fall caused losses of $6.1 billion across the travel industry and related sectors, he said.
The pause in programs is among the emergency measures DHS is taking to redirect staffing more than a week after Congress failed to send it more money, the Washington Post said.
Sunday’s moves follow orders from the Trump administration last week to another constituent of the DHS, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to suspend deployment of aid workers to disaster-affected areas due to the shutdown.
