What a sad state of affairs when a major airport is begging passengers to bring gifts for those working at the airport…
Denver Airport requests grocery & gas gift cards
Denver Airport has taken to social media to ask for donations for TSA agents. Specifically, the airport is asking passengers to “support the dedicated TSA employees working without pay by donating $10 and $20 grocery store and gas gift cards.”
It’s noted that Visa gift cards can’t be accepted, and that’s because federal employees can’t accept gifts of cash or cash equivalents. You’d think a grocery store or gas gift card would be (sort of) cash equivalent, but the restriction is specific to cards issued by credit card companies or other financial institutions.
These requests come amid a partial government shutdown, where the roughly 50,000 TSA agents around the country aren’t receiving their full pay. This is leading to an increase in sick calls, and in turn, an increase in wait times at many airports.
No matter how you slice it, what a sad state of affairs
Politics aside, it’s incredibly unfair to see frontline workers being the ones suffering most from a partial government shutdown, as their livelihoods are essentially being held hostage by politicians.
What’s so nuts about this situation — and I understand the general concept of how government funding works — is that passengers are paying the $5.60 per person September 11 Security Fee with their tickets, and then that’s supposed to be remitted to the TSA.
So TSA at Denver is doing work that’s generating well over $100 million in this revenue annually, but now that money is being withheld from those actually doing the work. It just shouldn’t be that way.
Bottom line
Denver Airport is asking airline passengers to bring gift cards for TSA agents, specifically for groceries and gas. This comes as many TSA agents are struggling to pay their bills due to a partial government shutdown. This is a well intentioned initiative and TSA agents deserve our support and appreciation, though it’s sad that something like this even has to happen in the first place.
This just seems like something that Russian state media would eat up, to show what life in the United States is like — “life in the United States is so bad that airport security screeners need donations to pay for gas.”
What do you make of this request from Denver Airport?