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Homeland Security Secretary Noem hands out $10,000 checks to Bush Airport TSA workers

Houston Public Media News 88.7 | By Michael Adkison

Published November 13, 2025 at 6:25 PM EST

The Terminal D at George Bush Intercontinental Airport unveiled on February 15, 2018, an innovative set of four automated screening lanes that will enhance the security screening process and also ease the passengers’ experience at the terminal.

Following the end of the U.S. government shutdown, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem handed out bonus checks for airport security workers at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday.

Bush Airport and Hobby Airport were among the 40 largest airports in the country that faced recent flight reductions because of a shortage of air traffic controllers during the shutdown. They also had lengthy wait times through the security lines operated by the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA.

Noem, flanked by more than a dozen airport workers, praised those employees who worked without pay throughout the government shutdown.

"What I'm here talking about today is the outstanding patriotism and service of our TSA officers and officials that stepped up every single day," Noem said, "to make sure that those individuals at our airports and at our transportation systems continue to be safe and secure while they went about their daily lives and limited the impact on those families that relied so much on getting to where they needed to be on time."

Some TSA workers, who are also set to receive their missed paychecks from the last month-and-a-half, received bonus checks of $10,000 from the Department of Homeland Security. Noem said her office will continue to evaluate potential recipients of bonus checks from TSA.

She cited some employees working throughout the government shutdown and their positive attitudes as reasons for the bonus checks.

"We couldn't have done it without these officers behind me and the entire leadership team," Juan Sanchez, the Houston TSA federal security director, said. "It was an entire group effort. We were supported by the airport community, our key stakeholders in Houston and likely across the country."

At the start of the month, wait times at Bush reached as long as three hours, with security lines stretching outside the building and spilling onto the sidewalks.

On Thursday, Noem repeated Republican claims that the government shutdown was at the behest of congressional Democrats. In October, some airports reportedly played a video message from Noem blaming the shutdown on Democrats, though such videos were not seen in either of Houston's two major airports by a Houston Public Media reporter.