Delta Suspends Special Congressional Perks Amid Government Shutdown Resource Strain

Delta Air Lines pulled congressional airport privileges on Tuesday, suspending the escort services, "red coat" assistance, and expedited security access that the airline's 535 lawmakers have long received as a matter of their office, not their loyalty status.

"Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta," the airline said in a statement. "Next to safety, Delta's no. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment."

Delta suspended its airport escorts and red coat services for members of Congress and their staff because of the ongoing partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Specialty services include airport escorts and other red coat services; Delta said lawmakers will be treated like any other passenger based on their SkyMiles status. Delta's Capital Desk, a reservations line dedicated to members of Congress, will remain open, according to KVUE.

The backdrop is a TSA in operational freefall. Airports around the U.S., including major hubs in cities such as Atlanta, where Delta is based, are seeing extra-long security lines as a result of elevated absences by TSA agents, who are set to miss their second full paycheck this week. DHS funding lapsed on February 14, and the consequences have compounded since. On Sunday, nearly 42% of rostered TSA officers due to work at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson called out sick. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston has been seeing lines to clear security of up to four hours.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian was one of 10 aviation leaders who signed an open letter to Congress urging lawmakers to reach a bipartisan deal to fund the TSA. "Once again, air travel is the political football amid another government shutdown," the letter read. "Too many travelers are having to wait in extraordinarily long and painfully slow lines at checkpoints," it continued. "Wait times of 2, 3, and even 4 hours have been reported."

The suspension comes a week after Bastian told CNBC he was "outraged" by the shutdown. "It's inexcusable that our security agents, our frontline agents, that are essential to what we do, are not being paid, and it's ridiculous to see them being used as political chips," he said.

The political standoff behind the shutdown has proven durable. In the wake of the killing of two U.S. citizens by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis, Congressional Democrats said they would not vote to fund DHS until changes, specifically for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were put into place. Senate Democrats and the White House have been trading proposals for weeks with little progress, while Democrats have pushed to fund DHS with carveouts to exclude ICE and CBP funding as negotiations continue.

Delta's move lands alongside formal legislative pressure. The U.S. Senate recently passed legislation authored by Sen. John Cornyn that would prohibit preferential TSA screening access for members of Congress and require them to go through the same security process as the general public; the bill would also bar the use of federal funds to provide expedited access based on a lawmaker's position. Cornyn's bill has been discharged from the Senate after passing, but it is unclear if or when the House will take it up.

While Delta's policy applies specifically to services provided by the airline, not TSA procedures, it effectively removes another layer of convenience that lawmakers have historically relied on when traveling. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the suspension.