In separate reports the GAO has documented the pandemic’s impact over its first year on two major subcomponents of DHS—CPB and TSA—in terms of the effects both on employees and agency operations.
At both agencies large majorities of employees are in front-line positions not lending themselves to telework although those agencies did expand work from home for positions that allowed it, as did the government in general.
GAO found that over the 12 months through February of this year more than 7,000 CBP Office of Field Operations and Border Patrol employees reported being infected with COVID-19, and 24 died due to COVID-19-related illnesses. In addition, some 20,000 OFO and Border Patrol employees were unable to work at some point due to COVID-19-related illnesses or quarantining in the same time period.
“OFO officials noted that employee absences due to COVID-19 did not generally have a significant impact on port operations, given relatively low travel volumes. In contrast, officials interviewed by GAO at three of four Border Patrol locations said that COVID-19 absences had impacted operations to some extent,” one report said.
“CBP also used a variety of workplace flexibilities, including telework and weather and safety leave to minimize the number of employees in the workplace, when appropriate. Meanwhile, CBP field locations moved some processing functions outdoors, encouraged social distancing, and provided protective equipment to employees and the public,” it said.
In the other report, the GAO said that the TSA reported that 5,456 out of approximately 48,000 TSOs (more than 11 percent) were diagnosed with COVID-19. “TSA cannot confirm whether TSOs contracted COVID-19 while at work, because TSA’s contact tracing process does not consider TSO activities and contacts outside of work,” it added.
The report did not account for deaths but the TSA itself reports that data, most recently showing 16 deaths.
TSA meanwhile “adjusted some screening procedures, such as asking passengers to remove more items from carry-on baggage to reduce the potential for alarms that require bag searches.” In addition, it modified certain checkpoint screening technologies, and granted screeners additional paid leave.
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