A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent’s patch is seen as she helps travelers place their bags through the 3-D scanner at the Miami International Airport.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
The Trumpadministrationhas tapped a formerWhiteHouseofficial to serve as theactingheadof the 60,000-employeeTransportationSecurityAdministration.
The TSA confirmed on Monday Ha NguyenMcNeillhas been named deputy administrator and is serving asactingheadof the agency that providessecurityat U.S. airports and othertransportationhubs. In January,Trump forced out TSA Administrator David Pekoske,whose term did not expire until 2027.
McNeillserved as the TSA’s chief of staff during Trump’s first term and previously worked at the NationalSecurityCouncil and the Office of Management and Budget. Trump has yet to name a nominee toheadthe agency.
The TSA screened904 million passengers in 2024,which was a record high and a 5% increase over 2023.
In March, thelargest federal employee unionfiled a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump’sadministrationfrom ending collective bargaining for nearly 50,000 TSA officers.
The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit claiming the HomelandSecurityDepartmentcanceled a bargaining agreementcovering TSA officers as retaliation against the union for challenging other Trumpadministrationinitiatives.
The lawsuit seeks to block TSA from canceling a seven-year collective bargaining deal, which was enacted last year, and bar DHS from rescinding it again.
During former President Barack Obama’sadministration, the TSA granted officers the ability to bargain over certain subjects, and former President Joe Biden’sadministrationexpanded the scope of bargainingin 2021.
On February 27, HomelandSecuritySecretary Kristi Noem rescinded the directives allowing TSA officers to unionize and directed the agency to cancel the bargaining agreement within 90 days. Noem also said she had asked lawyers at the DHS to take actions to make it impossible for any futureadministrationto grant TSA workers the right to bargain without action from Congress.
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