Air Marshals say they are reaching a ‘breaking point’ amid brain drain and ‘punishing’ schedules

Updated Sept. 25 at 11:29 a.m.

Federal Air Marshals are overworked and leaving the agency at an alarming rate, a representative for the workforce told Congress on Tuesday, and they are seeking a new agency to house them. 

The marshals are always on call and often have to work in 20-hour shifts, John Casaretti, president of the Air Marshal Association told a panel of the House Homeland Security Committee, leading to low morale throughout the workforce. Exacerbating the issue, he said, are the lack of details employees are given on why they are sent on flights and the general feeling the law enforcement personnel serve no purpose on them. 

The marshals are pushing the Transportation Security Administration, their parent agency, to use more data and intelligence for determining when to place them on flights. Casaretti cautioned, however, TSA’s mission does not align with that of the Federal Air Marshals Service. Passenger screening is more regulatory than law enforcement in nature, he argued, and therefore not well suited to oversee the marshals. 

“I think we need to be out of the bureaucratic agency we find ourselves in to just be an arm of that, and we need to be released to do the law enforcement work we all signed up to do,” Casaretti said. 

Asked to where FAMS should be relocated, he said Congress would have the best judgment to make that determination but floated the Transportation Department or elsewhere within the Homeland Security Department as possibilities. 

While TSA did not testify at the hearing, a spokesperson after the hearing rejected the proposal to relocate FAMS.

"TSA’s Federal Air Marshal Service remains committed to its most valuable resource–its workforce of Federal Air Marshals," the spokesperson said. "Being positioned within TSA strengthens the Federal Air Marshal Service to best accomplish our evolving security mission within the transportation sector.”

Tina Won Sherman, the Government Accountability Office's director for homeland security and justice, noted that while TSA has addressed many of the issues GAO has raised in recent years, it still does not have a firm grasp of the efficacy of its efforts.

“It’s been challenging and difficult to understand FAMS’ and air marshals’ ability to be effective as an aviation security countermeasure,” Sherman said. 

The issues are starting to take a toll. FAMs expect a “demanding job,” Casaretti said, but do not sign up to be “on call without compensation” or to “work punishing schedules.” The compounding issues have brought some Air Marshals to a breaking point, as he noted many of his colleagues have taken their own lives or seen their families fall apart. 

“You’re working on constant sleep deprivation and your circadian rhythm is knocked out of whack,” he said. 

Members of the Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee that hosted Tuesday’s hearing sympathized with the issues the witnesses presented and expressed concern about the impact on employee retention. 

“This panel especially knows the nature of the job includes frequent travel and long hours, and we know that it can take a toll on the morale and mental health of our Federal Air Marshals,” said Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y. 

Casaretti noted that most of the marshals that joined the agency when TSA was stood up following the September 11th attacks have now retired. 

“We suffered an incredible brain drain,” he said, while cautioning that new hires are receiving inadequate training.

The TSA spokesperson acknowledged many of the original FAMs have reached retirement age but added it has hired hundreds of new marshals to replace them. Additionally, the spokesperson said, FAMS leaders have worked to improve operational deficiencies that plagued the agency in its early days.

"TSA continues to invest in its Federal Air Marshal workforce and implement operational modifications to maintain mission success in keeping the traveling public safe," the spokesperson said, adding the agency has worked to address pay gaps compared to other federal law enforcement and scheduling that affected "quality of life issues." 

This story has been updated with comment from TSA.