Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents assists travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston, Texas, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. The Transportation Security Administration warned that airport security is under severe strain as a weeks-long Department of Homeland Security funding shutdown drives staffing shortages, long wait times and mounting disruptions across the US. Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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A group representing major U.S.airlinesopposes a White House proposal to require smaller airports to use private security screeners instead of the TransportationSecurityAdministration, according to written testimony seen by Reuters.
Airlinesfor America CEO Chris Sununu will tell a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday that ensuring thatprivatesecurity”remains an option forairportsand does not become a mandatory program is paramount to the U.S. aviation industry.”
PresidentDonaldTrumplast monthproposed cuttingmore than 9,400 workers and just over $1.5 billion from the annual budget of the 60,000-employee TSA that handles airportsecurityoperations.
The proposal is a first step toward privatizing the agency created after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Some Republican lawmakers have proposed to privatize TSA completely.
The White House said the mandatory change toprivatesecurityatsmallairportswould cut the TSA payroll by more than 4,500 jobs. The TSA proposes to cut another 4,800 jobs by improving efficiency, ending staffing at exit lanes and eliminating redundancies.
Sununu’s testimony added: “We are committed to TSA’s modernization efforts and support innovative solutions that accelerate the deployment of checkpoint and checked baggage technology as well as algorithms that increase efficiency.”
The proposal would cut the agency’s $7.8 billion budget by about 20% and comes after TSA lost more than 1,600 workers during government funding disruptions last fall and this spring.
Trumplast week nominated David Cummins, a senior vice president of SercoNorth America who oversees its federal, state and local government civilian customer portfolio, to head the TSA.
The Biden administration increased the size of the TSA, which screened a record-high 906 million passengers in 2025.
The union that represents TSAsecurityofficers, the American Federation of Government Employees,opposes privatization, saying it would make air travel less safe.
Trumphas been critical of the TSA. He fired its head, David Pekoske, whom he had tapped to head the agency in his first term, on his first day back in office in 2025. President Joe Biden had nominated Pekoske for a new term in 2022.
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