Napolitano warns of longer airport lines if spending is cut

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of Homeland Security, warns that travelers should brace for more airport delays if Congress continues cutting spending.

"You always hear that line: you need to do more with less," Napolitano told USA TODAY's Susan Page on Thursday. "But sometimes you're at the point where you can only do less with less."

Napolitano's last day in President Obama's cabinet is today, before she leaves to head the University of California system.

She said the Department of Homeland Security was forced to move money around within agencies and draw down accounts in order to deal with across-the-board spending cuts that occurred this year. Agencies are still considering how to cope with cuts if they extend into the new fiscal year Oct. 1.

But reductions in overtime spending already lengthened waits at Customs and Border Protection checkpoints across the country. Average waits lines peaked above three hours this summer at busy times at international airports such as Miami and New York's JFK.

Over at the Department of Transportation, a week of furloughs for air-traffic controllers delayed thousands of flights in April before Congress shifted funding from a construction account to fully pay for controllers through Sept. 30.

Congress must still settle on funding for the year starting Oct. 1. Additional spending cuts –and even a temporary government shutdown – are possible.

Napolitano warns that further cuts will reduce personnel who provide services that travelers rely upon.

"If it's continued into next year, that means issues about personnel and it also means then that people will experience longer lines, longer wait times, all those sorts of things," Napolitano said.