Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of transportation, said Sunday that he had not seen any indication that the COVID-19 mandate for federal workers would cause travel issues.
Buttigieg said on "Meet the Press" that he had not seen any indication that the vaccine requirements would affect travel.
The vaccine mandate for federal workers, which includes religious and medical exemptions but does not include a weekly testing alternative, will go into effect on Monday, three days before Thanksgiving.
The transportation secretary said that 99% of his department's employees had been vaccined for COVID-19, and that they were in the process of getting it.
David Pekoske, the administrator of the TSA, told CNN in an October interview that about 60% of workers had been vaccinations.
The agency told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in October that the number of employees who were vaccine free may have been greater than 60.
The compliance rate for the federal employee vaccine mandate is very high according to a TSA spokesman.
The agency's ability to staff for Thanksgiving travel will not be affected by the vaccine mandate. We are working diligently to implement the vaccine requirement, including by promoting vaccination and ensuring every employee is uploading their attestation information.
The agency has 273 employees with active COVID-19 infections. According to the agency, since the beginning of the Pandemic, 11,171 employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
"Let's remember what this is about, which is ending the Pandemic," Buttigieg said on Sunday. We are ready to be done with this epidemic. To be done, not just with the death and the hospitalization and the grim headlines, but also with the restrictions and the masks. Getting everyone vaccine means putting all that behind us.
