Travel and the Sequester: What You Need to Know

The sequester - $85 billion in automatic, across-the-board spending cuts in U.S. Government spending - officially began last Friday at 11:59 p.m. In the pre-sequester debate, many pointed to the travel industry as an area that would be hit hard by cuts. The FAA would suffer $600 million in cuts, which would affect air-traffic control staffing. Within terminals around the country, it was suggested security lines would grow and flights would be delayed.

Now that the sequester is here, what's happening? Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this morning at a Politico playbook breakfast that longer lines at airport security checkpoints could be blamed on the sequester. She said lines are"150 to 200 percent as long as we would normally expect." Elsewhere, the Department of State announced its passport agencies will be closed March 9 due to the cuts.