TSA closes checkpoint at Baltimore-DC airport after ‘excessive’ employee callouts amid shutdown

The Transport Security Administration (TSA) on Saturday closed a security checkpoint at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport over a lack of staffing.

The TSA said that due to “excessive” employee callouts, it shut down BWI’s Checkpoint A at 5:35 p.m., according to NBC Washington.

{mosads}The absences come as the partial government shutdown approaches its fifth week. The TSA has reported a heightened rate of employees calling in sick across the nation amid the shutdown.

TSA agents are among the estimated 800,000 federal employees who are furloughed or working without pay during the funding lapse. They are set to miss a second paycheck at the end of this coming week.

Agents held a protest at Pittsburgh airport on Friday demanding an end to the shutdown, and a number of other airports have shut down security checkpoints.