WASHINGTON -- As more travelers take to the skies, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is projecting that 131 of the nation's airports will experience staffing shortages this month. Acting TSA Administrator Darby LaJoye is now asking office ...

More than 300 TSA officers have quit since the partial government shutdown began last month, according to agency statistics obtained by CBS News.

The starting salary for a TSA agent is $34,454, while most make between $46,000 and $55,000 per year.

A pair of TSA officers talk as passengers wait in long TSA lines amid a funding standoff that has forced 50,000 airport security officers to go without pay, causign delay

They haven't been paid since a partial check in late February. "They're over their heads in debt," one TSA officer said of his co-workers.

A particularly busy spring break travel weekend has begun, and travelers are bracing for more long lines at airports nationwide even as the Department of Homeland Security has said Transportation Security Administration workers should begin receiving paychecks on Monday after weeks of a partial government shutdown.