You know, as well as I, that TSA would pander to that group making sure of favorable encounters.

I can only speak for RDU/GSO, and we have not lost a significant amount of staffing (the normal attrition rate has been essentially static for a number of years), and our passenger flow has increased both at GSO and RDU. I do not have a specific percentage or hard count for you, but it has been busier this year than last, and spring break has been a pretty heavy increase this year. Apparently more kids/families are going places this year.

How would you class wait times at those two airports during peak periods?

This is a nationwide phenomenon at all airports served by TSA - understaffing combined with lack of training. It's been all over the nightly news lately.

Very true - but for some reason MSP and EWR have been particularly "BAD" lately...

US unemployment rates are lower and households have more disposable income now than they had several years ago and feel wealthier, in large part due to lower oil prices and US asset price increases. That fuels somewhat increased demand for air travel. But the process and wait times IME have gotten worse by a factor in excess of increased passenger count.

No, the leadership is responsible.

The management of for-profit airport businesses manage to staff adequately during busy and slow times.

The management of TSA chooses to not make it a priority.

Center page on Drudge now:

The TSA Breakdown: The Long, Long Lines of Summer

RDU I do not have that info (at least I have not seen it published recently). If I could find it published by TSA, I would include it for you (the only one I have seen was the actual airport wait time indicator, and that is real time, not cumulative).

GSO, we have not had an appreciable increase in wait times that I have seen. Of course, we are also smaller.

Found this link for air traffic at LAX.

http://www.lawa.org/LAXStatistics.aspx

The latest statistic for this year is Jan. 2016. If you click on that you can see that both domestic and international flights are up over last year.

Many articles recently about long lines and TSA screening. There seems to be a disconnect somewhere. As TSA staffing levels are determined and regulated by Congress. Congress has cut the number of screeners, knowing that passenger rates are increasing.

Is it time to hold Congress responsible for creating the mess of long lines?

nTSA uses available workers less than effectively. That is at least partly responsible for delays at TSA checkpoints.

That is exactly what TSA leadership would like us to do - demand that Congress "fix" TSA by giving it more money to hire more people, and obtain more equipment/resources.

If you complain at the airport, or complain on TSA's Twitter account, they'll tell you to contact your Congressman.

Except...unless the slowdowns are being artificially manufactured, suddenly hiring 4000 new screeners who have to go to the academy for weeks of training - in short, who won't be actually on the floor and either working or standing around playing with their cellphones and distracting and talking to their co-workers - a bunch of new hires aren't going to get into the system fast enough to relieve the congestion for months.

Putting all available staff to work and opening all available lanes would ease the congestion, but that's not Neffenger's game.

Meanwhile, IMHO, we are all at greatly increased risk as the TSA-engineered congestion continues.

A question I would like an honest TSO to answer honestly: I've recently heard a TSO say that at some airports, LTSOs and STSOs never do 'hands on' work. They are supposed to stand around the checkpoint and watch what's going on (which they usually do by standing aside and chatting to other LTSOs and STSOs in between checking their cellphones).

In short, the 'understaffing' is partly the result of LTSOs and STSOs not actually doing anything to process pax and bags.

I'd also like to know the ratio of LTSO/STSOs to TSOs, since I have seen more than one checkpoint personally (and seen many more photos and videos) where it's clear that the number of non-working TSOs greatly exceeds the number of TSOs actually processing pax.

I think we should push ur Congresscritters to force the TSA clerks to not have access to their cellphones while on-duty. That would allow them to focus on what they're being paid for and what they are supposed to be doing.