Related videos:
President Donald Trump presented a budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 last Friday that includes the first steps toward privatizing airport security operations, currently managed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a federal agency established after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
The proposal includes a cut of 52 million dollars to the TSA budget and would require small airports to mandatory enroll in the Screening Partnership Program (SPP), through which the TSA hires private companies to carry out passenger screenings under federal supervision, reported Reuters.
The TSA has approximately 50,000 federal employees who manage security screening at nearly all airports across the country.
The budget documents from the White House justify the measure by stating that "the airports currently using the program have demonstrated savings compared to federal screening operations."
The proposal comes directly as a consequence of the chaos generated by the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which began on February 14, 2026, leaving TSA federal agents without pay for more than 40 days, making it the longest in the history of the United States.
The absenteeism among agents reached a national average of 11% to 12%, with peaks exceeding 50% in some airports, and at least 460 agents resigned, causing lines of up to four hours at terminals across the country during the spring peak season.
One of the central arguments of the Trump administration for expanding the program is that the airports that already operate with private security staff under the SPP did not experience these disruptions during the DHS shutdown.
Currently, around 21 airports are voluntarily participating in the program, including San Francisco International Airport and Kansas City International Airport.
To alleviate the crisis, Trump ordered on March 23 the deployment of at least 50 agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) per shift at 14 airports, and on March 27 signed an executive order to immediately pay TSA agents.
The union American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has warned about risks to air security and potential wage cuts and labor protections for workers if privatization moves forward.
The proposal does not imply a total or immediate privatization: the TSA would continue to oversee contracts, policies, and equipment, and private agents would operate under its standards. The cut of 52 million represents just 0.45% of the agency's total budget for 2026, estimated at approximately 11.5 billion dollars.
The initiative still needs to be approved by the Congress, which is in recess until mid-April without having resolved the budget impasse that led to the crisis at the TSA.
Filed under: