Delta Air Lines is sick of the government shutdown, and now they’re making Congress pay for it.
The airline has refused to operate the special congressional desk service that assists lawmakers and staffers until the shutdown ends, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.
“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” the company said in a statement.
Those with access to the desk get special perks when flying, including booking trips at discounted rates, reserving same-day tickets for congressional votes, and making last-minute ticketing changes.
“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,” the company said pointedly when defending its decision to terminate the congressional perk.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Delta for comment.
The 50,000 TSA officers the government employs have been going without pay for weeks now. This is the third time in under a year that TSA employees have been without pay.
Sick of the uncertainty around their job, 400 workers have quit, and thousands have called out since the partial government shutdown began on February 14.
Wait times for regular travelers have hit record highs. In Houston alone, 41 percent of TSA workers didn’t show up for work, where wait times reached a staggering 103 minutes.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian has previously decried the treatment of airport workers, writing a letter to Congress stating, “It’s difficult, if not impossible, to put food on the table, put gas in the car and pay rent when you are not getting paid.”
The thousands of TSA agents who have stayed on have had to take severe measures to stay afloat, including sleeping in their cars, selling their blood, and skipping meals.
The shutdown has dragged on as President Donald Trump has thwarted attempts by Democrats to make a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and pay TSA workers.
Senator John Kennedy told Fox News that he and a fellow MAGA ally came up with a plan to open and fund DHS and pass ICE funding separately through the reconciliation process.
But the plan was dead in the water when Trump told Kennedy, “No deals with the Democrats.”
“It would have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week,” Kennedy said.
Trump has said Democrats are responsible for the shutdown and has sent ICE into airports over the weekend to assist TSA agents.
“These Lunatics are being totally unreasonable in their Radical Left asks. They are FULLY TO BLAME, and must pay a big price, for the good of our Country, in the Midterm Elections. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social.
TSA officers are set to miss their second paycheck in a row on March 27.
