TSA Says Vaccine Mandate Won't Keep Them From Harassing Holiday Travelers

Just last month, we reported your holiday travel plans could be a mess with even more delays due to vaccine hesitancy among TSA agents. At the time, just 60 percent of agents had been reported as fully vaccinated, putting them at a major risk of missing a November 22 vaccination deadline for federal employees.

November 22 was just days ago, and according to the TSA, your airport woes this Thanksgiving most likely won't be their fault as the agency reports 93 percent of the agency's employees are in compliance with the vaccination mandate, according to Forbes, who reached out to the agency. That 93 percent includes employees who have received an exemption.

Lisa Farbstein, spokesperson for TSA Northeast (for Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Virginia and other northeastern states) tweeted this:

Now, here's where this gets interesting.

In an article posted on CNBC on Monday, the White House had shared more than 90 percent of federal workers had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose (also pointing out the 93 percent reported by the TSA). The article quotes an e-mail they received from a senior administration official going on to say:

The federal workforce has reached 95% compliance with the requirement between those who have received at least one vaccine dose and employees who've filed for an exception or a deadline extension, the official added.

The statement suggests that a single dose or an exemption is enough for the employees to be considered compliant. That contradicts the instructions the White House set out for the vaccination mandate for federal employees, requiring them to be fully vaccinated two weeks prior to the deadline.

If you visit the official Safer Federal Workforce site, you can find this in the Q & A, regarding compliance:

Employees will be considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 2 weeks after they have received the requisite number of doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved or authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or that has been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization. For Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or AstraZeneca/Oxford, that is 2 weeks after an employee has received the second dose in a 2-dose series. For Johnson and Johnson (J&J)/Janssen, that is 2 weeks after an employee has received a single-dose.

Okay, so that's confusing. Which is it?

I reached out to the TSA for some clarification it means to say that 93 percent of their workforce is considered "compliant," with the federal mandate. Janell Goodwin, of TSA's media relations provided this response:

Compliant means they have reported their status as either vaccinated or claimed an exception on medical or religious grounds.

So, the agents are at least telling their bosses that they're vaccinated. According to our TSA spokesperson, the TSA also has plans for those who have yet to meet the compliance of having exemption from getting vaccinated, or those who have yet to be fully vaccinated. She goes on to say there will be, "a period of counseling and education for those employees. The period is one intended to reach 100 percent vaccination status."

She also emphasized that the TSA "does not anticipate that the federal vaccine mandate will in any way impact the agency's ability to staff for Thanksgiving travel."

This confirms information provided by TSA spokesperson, R. Carter Langston, who said in an e-mail with Forbes that the agency made significant progress to ensure compliance. Adding, "and implementation of the requirement will not result in any disruptions to critical services that the American people depend on." [The TSA does not deliver a critical service, no one has ever depended on it.— ED]

In the meantime, if you do meet a delay at the airport, it's probably one of the dozen or so other reasons we've seen delays at airports from you just running late to unruly passengers, stressed-out flight attendants, pilot shortages, and the list goes on.