By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - Customs officials say travelers entering the U.S.
already are facing delays at large airports because of federal spending
cuts and that worse problems are on the way.
Agencies within
the Department of Homeland Security initiated a hiring freeze and
reduced overtime immediately after the $85 billion in spending cuts
across the government began Friday.
Customs and Border
Protection says it reduced its number of checkpoint lanes to cut
overtime staffing over the weekend, and waiting times for arriving
passengers seeking to clear checkpoints spiked at some airports.
Typically 25% to 40% of the lanes at two top international gateways -
New York's JFK airport and Miami International - would have been
staffed with employees on overtime, according to the agency.
On Saturday morning at JFK, the agency says, passengers from 56 flights
waited over two hours to clear customs, and passengers from 14 flights
waited longer than three hours. In Miami, passengers from 51 flights
waited longer than two hours, and passengers from four flights had to
wait longer than three hours.
"These wait times are not typical for this time period and are related to decreased booth staffing," the agency says.
Even in Canada, Montreal's CJAD news radio
reports U.S.-bound passengers flying from Montreal's-Trudeau Airport
"are being greeted this week with posted advisories of possible delays
while going (through) pre-boarding American customs checks."
Furlough
notices are scheduled to go out Thursday to employees, which will
further increase wait times at customs, the agency says.
Congressional
Republicans have voiced skepticism that agencies need to reduce
staffing for travelers to deal with the spending cuts.
But Janet
Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security, said Monday that wait times
at customs checkpoints and at Transportation Security Administration
security checkpoints for departing passengers will get longer with
reduced overtime and a hiring freeze even before furloughs begin in a
month.
"We will see these effects cascade over the next week," Napolitano told a breakfast sponsored by Politico. "I don't mean to scare. I mean to inform. If you're traveling, get to the airport earlier than you otherwise would."