The Transportation Security Administration has temporarily frozen hiring and overtime so it can afford across-the-board cost-of-living raises for employees, a move that leaders of the agency’s employee union said could lead to long waits at airport checkpoints during spring break.

Hydrick Thomas, the union’s president, said agency officials told him last week that the freezes would be in place until April or May. That could leave security checkpoints short-staffed, he said.

“You’re going to have long lines,” Thomas said. “That’s just the way it works.”

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