Yeah, I think the TSA shutdown is being offset by less people travelling for the Federal Gov't and less people going on vacation (trying to save money during the shutdown)
I'll bet you're right. FWIW, all leave has been canceled for the 420K federal employees (myself included) who are working without pay -- meaning that all vacations, pre-approved or not, are canceled. We've been told that if we attempt to take any kind of leave at all -- even a single day for bereavement or a medical emergency -- we risk our status being changed to "furloughed" and losing the right to back pay. Even if that wasn't the case and we were allowed to take vacations, nobody I work with can afford to travel right now: not when we're trying to keep every penny in reserve to pay for our medical insurance (most of us carry the medical insurance for our entire families thanks to the fact that the government contributes a portion of the premiums, but now we're on the hook for the whole premium amount unless we want our coverage to lapse), mortgages, gas and vehicle maintenance, etc., for who-knows-how-long.
I still haven't told my 10 and 12-year-olds that our long-planned-and-already-paid-for February break vacation to Universal will also be canceled if the shutdown continues into mid-February, because I won't be able to go, and because the refunded hotel costs might help keep our health insurance going for one more month. I'm just praying that the government will be reopened before then.
EDIT: Update - After three different (and wildly evolving) staff updates, I have learned that I
don't have to pay for our medical insurance during the shutdown (only vision and dental; the rest is covered for the year), and that the worst that would happen to me if I went to Florida during the shutdown (despite being an "essential" government employee) is that I would be deemed "furloughed" during the week I'm gone. My status would apparently flip back to "essential" as soon as I came back to work. In short, it looks like maybe I won't have to call off our trip after all! I'm still not getting paid, which means we're making a number of changes in our day-to-day lifestyle to compensate (DirectTV and home internet canceled, no movies, no restaurants, no driving except for work or errands, no expensive meats or cheeses on the grocery list, DH's replacement of his 2005 Honda with a newer used vehicle will have to wait, and we're casting about the house to find things we can sell for some extra cash), but it feels better to know that we have
something -- even if it's just a quick 5 days at Universal -- to which we can all look forward.