Backpacks borne and carry-ons in tow, travelers at Miami International Airport shuffled through serpentine security lines on Friday. Transportation Security Administration agents shepherded them into and out of metal detectors, sending a steady stream of passengers toward their gates.
Flowing the opposite direction was a separate trickle of blue-uniformed people. It started in the security lines and dribbled out to the departures hall, down the escalators, through the airport’s sliding doors and into a parking lot, where TSA agents pooled under the midmorning sun.
They made their way through a different queue — a bread line — availing themselves of the free food that Feeding South Florida, the region’s largest food bank, had bussed in earlier that morning.
It had been 14 days since any of them had been paid, thanks to the federal government shutdown. And like many of the 1.4 million federal employees who have now gone weeks without pay, they were feeling the pinch…