TSA PreCheck Suspended; The Airport is About to be Hell

Intimate Knowledge

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture

3.5 • 697 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2026

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Department of Homeland Security made a late night announcement: TSA PreCheck and Global Entry are suspended until lawmakers reach a deal to fund DHS. Democrats, and the airlines themselves, have accused the administration of using Americans as a “political football” to try and end another government shutdown.

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:14.3	Hey there, folks.
0:15.3	It is Sunday, February 22nd, and I sure as hell hope you are not heading to the airport today. You are going to be waking up to some really disturbing news. The Trump administration, blaming the shutdown, has now made a move that could potentially cause chaos at airports. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and T.J. Robs. I hated to even give you this news when you woke up this morning. But overnight, we did get word. TSA precheck is being suspended as of this morning.
0:47.6	You said it was going to be potentially disruptive. I'm going to take that a step further and say it's almost assuredly going to be
0:55.2	chaos at the airports because yes, they have shut down temporarily TSA pre-check but also
1:01.7	global entry. So if you're coming into the United States, say you went off on a European
1:08.4	vacation this week. It's winter break for a lot of students. You're coming back in. You think you're going to just breeze through global entry.
1:15.5	Nope. You're going to be stuck in line for an hour or so with the rest of us.
1:19.5	And most Americans, though, listening, Robs, global entry is fine. But you got 20 million
1:23.3	plus Americans. This program is for folks who fly regularly, and you want to zip through that
1:30.5	freaking line. Well, all you 20 plus million who are part of TSA Precheck are about to get dumped
1:38.5	into the same line as everybody else. And oh yeah, all of you non-frequent travelers who are in the regular line, you're about to get 20 million people in the line that's for you. Okay, Robes, how's this going to go? Everyone's going to be upset. And you make a really good point. It's not just people who are used to getting TSA pre-check and used to going through quickly. They don't have to take their shoes off.
2:01.8	They don't have to take their laptops out.
2:04.0	And you just know you plan your time when you head to the airport based on the fact that you know you have TSA pre-check.
2:11.0	You know you can erase at least 30 minutes off of your prep time, give or take.
2:15.5	But now all you folks who know you're going to be waiting in that line,
2:19.2	consider that line doubled at this point, at least.
2:22.7	So now everybody is going to have to expect really long lines to get through security.
2:29.7	I'm just saying, and that is a nightmare for everybody.
2:32.8	But the other nightmare part of this, Robs, we didn't get a heads up.
2:37.5	It's Sunday.
	...

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