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Speaker 1: Our powerful military campaign to end the threats posed by

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Speaker 1: the Iranian regime continued in full force over the past

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Speaker 1: few days. They have been literally obliterated. The air force

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Speaker 1: is gone, the navy is gone. Many many ships have

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Speaker 1: been sunk. Their war fighting ships, but I guess they

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Speaker 1: didn't know how to use them. And anti aircraft is decimated,

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Speaker 1: their radar is gone, and their leaders are gone.

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Speaker 2: Other than that, they're doing quite well.

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Speaker 3: If you're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with

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Speaker 3: Ben ferguson.

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Speaker 4: Good Tuesday morning, it's signs to have you with us

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Speaker 4: on the forty seven Morning Update. We've got one big

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Speaker 4: story for you. Airports are getting worse by the day.

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Speaker 4: TSA agents are quitting and the lines are getting longer.

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Speaker 4: And now Republicans and the White House are demanding immediate funding,

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Speaker 4: while the Democrats stall on purpose. So what is their

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Speaker 4: next move? But before we get to that, I want

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Speaker 4: to take a moment and ask you to help the

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Speaker 4: people in Israel. My friends at the IFCJ working right

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Speaker 4: now on the ground for all those in need. Having

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Speaker 4: just come back from Israel, I want to paint you

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Speaker 4: a picture. It's midnight, sirens are blearing, and you have

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Speaker 4: only seconds to grab your child and run. Now imagine

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Speaker 4: your elderly. Your legs don't work like they used to.

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Speaker 4: Getting downstairs feels impossible, and after all of that, you

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Speaker 4: end up in a bomb shelter for hours, even days,

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Speaker 4: because you can't make the trek again. This is what's

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Speaker 4: happening across Israel as Operation Epic Fury continues. Children are

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Speaker 4: being traumatized, families are just exhausted, and homes have been destroyed.

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Speaker 4: And that's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews

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Speaker 4: is there on the ground, bringing food, emergency equipment, care

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Speaker 4: for those children, and help for the elderly, and supplying

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Speaker 4: the bomb shelters and medical centers for critically needed essentials.

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Speaker 4: If you've ever wondered what it looks like to stand

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Speaker 4: for Israel and stand for good against evil, this is

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Speaker 4: it and that's why I'm asking to now please act.

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Speaker 4: Give forty five dollars right now to rush life saving

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Speaker 4: essentials to the vulnerables under fire. You can also call

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Speaker 4: eight to eight for eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight

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Speaker 4: eight for eight eight IFCJ. Join me and give and

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Speaker 4: make a real difference online at IFCJ dot org.

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Speaker 2: That's IFCJ dot org.

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Speaker 4: It's the forty seven Morning Update, and it starts right now.

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Speaker 2: Story number one.

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Speaker 4: It is official. Democrats got exactly what they wanted. There

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Speaker 4: is a growing crisis at airports across the United States

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Speaker 4: of America today and it's directly tied to a political

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Speaker 4: battle in Washington over the funding of ICE. That is

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Speaker 4: holding literally America's airports and you, if you're traveler hostage.

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Speaker 4: Right now, more than fifty thousand transportations to Security Administration

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Speaker 4: officers are working without pay after Congress yet again failed

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Speaker 4: to pass a full funding bill for the Department of

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Speaker 4: Homeland Security. The shutdown began after lawmakers failed to reach

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Speaker 4: an agreement over immigration enforcement and broader DHS spinning priorities

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Speaker 4: and the consequences they're immediate, according to federal officials. Today,

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Speaker 4: TSA union representatives are also confirming that more than three

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Speaker 4: hundred TSA officers have already quit since the shutdown began.

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Speaker 4: Democrats knew that this was going to happen. They designed

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Speaker 4: this on purpose. About ten percent of TSA officers called

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Speaker 4: out or failed to report to work during the first

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Speaker 4: weekend without full pay as well. Normally, absentee rates are

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Speaker 4: around two to three percent, meaning absentees have quadrupled or

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Speaker 4: more depending on which airport you are going to. The

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Speaker 4: major airports have reported more than twenty percent staffing shortages

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Speaker 4: during peak travel periods. And it's spring break for many Americans,

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Speaker 4: and remember, TSA officers are considered a central personnel, meaning

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Speaker 4: they are required to keep working even if they are

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Speaker 4: not being paid. They will get back pay eventually. Now,

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Speaker 4: ABC News and others are forced to cover this ongoing crisis,

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Speaker 4: and as spring break surge, the strain has gotten even worse.

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Speaker 5: The spring break travel crush underway, expected to be the

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Speaker 5: busiest ever as millions fill airports across the country. Early

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Speaker 5: this morning, security lines sneaking outside the airport in Austin, Texas,

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Speaker 5: the travel surge coming as sixty thousand TSA officers are

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Speaker 5: already feeling the squeeze, receiving their first zero dollar paycheck today.

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Speaker 5: With funding still halted for the Department of Homeland Security,

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Speaker 5: with no end in sight, morals low.

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Speaker 2: Your bills are still going to keep, but you have.

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Speaker 5: No way to band to ease the burden. Food bantries

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Speaker 5: opening up from JFK to Seattle, Denver's Airport accepting food

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Speaker 5: and Gascard donations for its TSA officers.

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Speaker 3: It hurts the pride you have to go and stand

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Speaker 3: in the line, you know, to receive food and things,

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Speaker 3: when the only thing you've done is show up like

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Speaker 3: you're supposed to.

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Speaker 5: Nearly a month into the shutdown, more than three hundred

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Speaker 5: TSA officers have quit callouts, more than doubling.

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Speaker 4: President Trump demanding that these TSA agents receive their paychecks.

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Speaker 4: Democrats are saying no, we want them to suffer because

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Speaker 4: we don't like ice agents that are actually not TSA

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Speaker 4: agents at the airport.

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Speaker 2: This is what you call political revenge.

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Speaker 4: And for many of these agents, by the way, the

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Speaker 4: financial pressure is immediate. The average frontline TSA officer that

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Speaker 4: you meet at the airport, their salary is roughly forty

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Speaker 4: five to sixty thousand per year, meaning missing even one

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Speaker 4: paycheck can create major financial stress for families trying to

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Speaker 4: pay rent, mortgages, groceries, as well as childcare. Now, Republicans

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Speaker 4: and President Trump had been leading the push to fund

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Speaker 4: the TSA. Republicans in Congress say the crisis is entirely avoidable.

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Speaker 4: They have introduced legislation that would fully fund just the

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Speaker 4: TSA operations and the rest of the Department of Homelanned Security.

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Speaker 4: But Democrats, holding America hostage during spring break, have refused

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Speaker 4: to advance the funding bill. They say, unless immigration enforcement

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Speaker 4: provisions are stripped out, this is all about political revenge.

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Speaker 4: President Trump has repeatedly urged Congress to fund TSA and

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Speaker 4: border security immediately. Trump said in a statement about the shutdown, quote,

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Speaker 4: our TSA officers and border agents protect America every single day.

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Speaker 4: They should never be forced to work without pay because

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Speaker 4: of politics in Washington. In another statement on the DHS

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Speaker 4: funding fight, Trump said today this quote, we must fund

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Speaker 4: Home land security, fully, fund TSA and secure our borders.

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Speaker 4: Republicans are ready to do that right now. Republican leaders

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Speaker 4: argue that air travel securities should not become a political

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Speaker 4: bargaining chip, especially during periods of heightened global tension, and

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Speaker 4: multiple terrorist attacks have taken place in the United States

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Speaker 4: of America over the last ten days. At the same time, however,

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Speaker 4: several prominent Democrats have previously called for dramatically reducing or

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Speaker 4: even eliminating the TSA.

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Speaker 2: Do you really want to fly on planes?

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Speaker 4: Is the question all Americans should ask without going through security.

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Speaker 4: Who are the Democrats behind this idea. Example number one

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Speaker 4: Alexandra Cortes, known as AOC. She's previously supported proposals to restrict, structure,

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Speaker 4: or eliminate TSA as part of broader federal policing reforms.

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Speaker 4: Alamo mar another radical of the left, has also expressed

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Speaker 4: support for reducing federal security agencies and redirecting resources towards

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Speaker 4: what she described as other priorities, meaning you could get

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Speaker 4: on a plane and not go through security. In twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty and twenty twenty one, there were multiple Progressive Democrats

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Speaker 4: that supported policy platforms that proposed abolishing or privatizing airport

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Speaker 4: security systems, arguing that the TSA was ineffective or overly intrusive,

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Speaker 4: so therefore you should just be able to take anything

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Speaker 4: you want on an airplane. It's like, you know, the

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Speaker 4: honor system, until a terrorist decides to blow up a plane.

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Speaker 4: Those proposals are now reservicing again this week during the

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Speaker 4: current funding fight, with some progressive lawmakers arguing that DHS

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Speaker 4: agencies should it'd be fundamentally restructured rather than simply funded.

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Speaker 4: Now the airlines are now getting into the game. They're

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Speaker 4: warning of security risks. Major airlines are now warning that

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Speaker 4: the situation could spiral if the shutdown continues. And then

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Speaker 4: there's the travelers themselves. They're furious over the lines. Just

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Speaker 4: take a listen to NBC's local DC affiliate and how

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Speaker 4: they are now talking about the real story of what

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Speaker 4: has happened at the airports all because of the Democrats.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, so much concern about TSA checkpoint lines

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Speaker 6: all across the country. Right now. We can show you

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Speaker 6: what it looks like at Reagan National Airport. Pretty good

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Speaker 6: for the moment. Everything moving pretty smoothly right now. But

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Speaker 6: it's what's happening behind the scenes here that's really starting

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Speaker 6: to cause concern.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 6: TSA workers are about to miss their second paycheck of

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Speaker 6: this ongoing partial government shutdown. And that's on top of

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Speaker 6: what these workers went through during the long this government

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Speaker 6: shut down ever in the fall, where many missed multiple

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Speaker 6: paychecks as well, Adam.

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Speaker 7: And that's the stress part is what's really not being reported.

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Speaker 6: I think Joe Schucker is with the union that represents

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Speaker 6: TSA employees in the mid Atlantic. Now, TSA sources are

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Speaker 6: telling News for that it's gotten so bad that some

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Speaker 6: workers are sleeping in their cars outside of airports. Including

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Speaker 6: Dallas International, because those workers can't pay rent or afford

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Speaker 6: gas to drive around.

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Speaker 7: I know that's a fact, no doubt. It's a stressful

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Speaker 7: enough job as it is. You're looking for bombs, you're

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Speaker 7: looking for weapons. Right now you have the out of

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Speaker 7: stress of how am I going to feed my family tomorrow?

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Speaker 7: How am I going to put gas in my car?

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Speaker 6: A senior TSA official confirms and internal report to NBC

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Speaker 6: News that around three hundred officers have now quit and

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Speaker 6: many many more are calling out sick. That's part of

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Speaker 6: the issue that's been causing long lines at some TSA

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Speaker 6: checkpoints across the country.

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Speaker 7: At some point, officers going to hit a breaking point,

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Speaker 7: and like I said, it's going to be a perfect storm.

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Speaker 7: We're heading in the spring break and the officers haven't

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Speaker 7: got paid in two months.

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Speaker 6: When I asked him the solution, he said, simply, they have.

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Speaker 2: To pay us.

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Speaker 4: Now you add all this in with what the airlines

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Speaker 4: are saying. Executives from American Delta Southwest have now urged

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Speaker 4: Congress directly to resolve the crisis quickly. They warned that

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Speaker 4: the continued staffing shorges could increase security weight times, force

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Speaker 4: checkpoint closures altogether and caused major airport delays nationwide. During

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Speaker 4: previous shutdowns, wait times at some airport stretched to over

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Speaker 4: two hours. As TSA staffing shorges grew. The numbers behind

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Speaker 4: the crisis are truly incredible. Fifty plus thousand TSA officers

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Speaker 4: are now working officially without.

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Speaker 2: Any pay at all.

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Speaker 4: Eighty five thousand Department Home and Security employees are also affected.

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Speaker 4: One hundred plus TSA agents have already quit, and the

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Speaker 4: absence rate from work is jumping day after day from

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Speaker 4: two all the way up to about ten percent. Many

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Speaker 4: airports are also seeing major shortages this morning as well,

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Speaker 4: as I mentioned earlier, depending on how organized the workers become.

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Speaker 4: Some airports are reporting twenty percent staffing shortages TSA officers.

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Speaker 4: They're not getting rich the average salaries I mentioned earlier

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Speaker 4: forty five to sixty thousand annually, and that's exactly why

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Speaker 4: many of them are sleeping in their cars at the airport.

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Speaker 4: So this is the bottom line for President Trump. Airport

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Speaker 4: securities should not be political. Airport security in the United

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Speaker 4: States is now caught in the middle of a political

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Speaker 4: fight only because of the Democrats. Republicans say they are

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Speaker 4: ready to pass the bill that would fully fund TSA immediately,

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Speaker 4: and Democrats are saying no, they want open borders, they

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Speaker 4: want broader immigration concessions meaning more legal immigrants in America

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Speaker 4: before they agree to give you homeland security funding. President

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Speaker 4: Trump has also made it clear in another issue, it's

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Speaker 4: time for you to call your congressman and your senator

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Speaker 4: and demand that our airports are taken off the political

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Speaker 4: shopping block.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update

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Speaker 3: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever

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Speaker 3: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more

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Speaker 3: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast

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Speaker 3: and we will see you back here tomorrow