By Kai Uyehara
Seattle Times breaking news reporter
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport will not be playing a video from President Donald Trump’s administration blaming Democrats for airport delays resulting from the ongoing partial government shutdown.
This is the second time the airport has declined to play such a video in the last six months. During the federal government shutdown in October, the Department of Homeland Security circulated a video of then-Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats.
“It’s the same situation” as last time, but “it is a different video” as Noem was fired from her position nearly two weeks ago, said airport spokesperson Perry Cooper.
Cooper said he could not share the video itself. But ABC News reported the agency released a 30-second video message saying travelers “may be experiencing longer-than-average wait times due to the ongoing Democrat shutdown of TSA and the Department of Homeland Security.”
Sea-Tac won’t be playing the video because of its “political nature,” Cooper said in a statement. “We continue to urge bipartisan efforts to end the government shutdown and are working to find ways to support federal employees working without pay at SEA during the shutdown.”
The Transportation Security Administration can run the video on their own monitors at checkpoint spaces, Cooper said, but he is unaware that they have done that yet.
Like many airports around the country that have also declined to show the video, Sea-Tac is invoking the 1939 Hatch Act, which restricts certain political activities by federal employees.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the TSA could be immediately reached for comment.
Sea-Tac has opened a food pantry with supplies like nonperishable food, hygiene items and diapers to support staff who have been working without pay for a month now during the partial government shutdown while Congress remains at an impasse over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Democrats have demanded significant restrictions on federal immigration enforcement in order for the DHS to get the funding .
Staff are strained at airports across the country, especially while thousands of flights have been delayed as powerful storms sweep across the Eastern half of the country.
About 145 flights in and out of Sea-Tac were delayed and 36 canceled Monday shortly before 3 p.m., according to FlightAware. Perry has noted before that such counts are imprecise, but said the delays and cancellations are due to a ”domino effect” from storms across the nation.
But, he noted, the totals “are not a lot.”
Impacts to flight are “not unusual” during significant weather events. During Friday’s snow, hundreds of flights were canceled into and out of Sea-Tac.
Wait times have been less than 20 minutes at Sea-Tac 80% of the time, Cooper said. The average wait is about 14 to 16 minutes and has only reached up to 35 minutes during a couple brief periods.
“Again,” Cooper said, “kudos to the TSA staff who are coming to work without getting paid.”
Kai Uyehara: 206-652-6419 or kuyehara@seattletimes.com. Kai Uyehara is a breaking news reporter at The Seattle Times.