Over the past six months, the Transportation Security Administration has increased civil penalties for passengers, mostly on board aircraft, who have refused to comply with mask-wearing orders, levying more than $640,000 in proposed fines, according to a government report released Monday.
That was a sharp increase from a six-month period from February to September last year, when the TSA issued more than 2,000 warnings and fined just 10 passengers totaling $2,350, according to an October news release.
In total, between February 2, 2021, and March 7, 2022, the agency fined 922 people for violating mask-wearing requirements and issued 2,709 warnings, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Wearing masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus became a cultural flashpoint in the early months of the pandemic and continues to spark controversy.
Last week, the Biden administration extended the mandate for masks on air travel and public transportation through April 18, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reviewing the policy to make sure it’s still required.
Both the TSA and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating incidents of people failing to comply with mask-wearing requirements. The authority of the TSA is not limited to air transport, but extends to airports and other forms of public transport. In 2021, the FAA proposed over $5 million in fines for unruly aircraft passengers; most of the incidents involved masks.
R. Carter Langston, spokesman for the TSA, said the incident reporting process has become clearer over the past six months, which is why the number of warnings and fines has increased so much.
In late October, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Benny Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, urged the Transportation Security Administration to increase penalties.
The report did not contain any recommendations for the agency.