TSA is experiencing some technical difficulties: #tellusatoday

Letter to the editor:

The Transportation Security Administration is underfunded, and the shortage of personnel creates long lines and compromises security. This has happened the old-fashioned way, where Congress votes on a bill to increase TSA personnel but cannot agree on how to fund this task. I exhort people to call their congressmen and demand they provide the funds to hire the 5,000 TSA employees needed. Most congressmen are up for reelection this year; they should be reminded of that.

America once had an “airline based” security concept, and the result was four planes down on 9/11. When profit, not security, becomes the goal, you get high turnover, poor training and underqualified employees. Privatization is a rollback to a system guaranteed to fail again.

Robert Peterson; Brooks, Ga.

Facebook comments are edited for clarity, length and grammar:

Funny how the drop in personnel happened over years, but the delays started in just a few weeks.

— Alex Curtis

Airlines want to shrink the size of allowable carry-on luggage to charge more in baggage fees, and the government wants to strip away more of our rights. It's all ridiculous.

— Josh Frei

If the government knows that enrolling in PreCheck would alleviate the lines, why charge for it? It should be covered by the security fee already collected in a ticket purchase. Have free enrollment, and it will lower costs in the long run.

— Rodney Lord

This is just a jobs program the federal government put in place. There are more TSA agents standing around doing nothing because they are not qualified to do the job.

— Jody Angelini

This is probably just a scam to get people to fork over the money to get PreCheck-certified.

— C Renee Thome

We asked our followers why they thought TSA lines were so backed up and how they would fix the situation. Comments from Twitter are edited for clarity and grammar:

A way to solve the issue would be hiring more TSA employees (creating jobs) and opening more lines (shortening wait time).

— @Mandalyn93

I’d say it’s because of baggage fees. People are stuffing more into carry-ons to avoid airline fees.

— @rabbigreen

It's an intentional work slow-down to lobby for a larger budget. I'd fix it by dissolving the TSA .

— @pboldosser

Government cutbacks on TSA and lack of scanning equipment at many locations.

— @thewalrusaid

They are deliberately causing the lines to back up so more people will sign up for their pre-screening program.

— @jand1128