New York — A House committee on Wednesday expressed bipartisan support for ensuring that Transportation Security Administration Officers get paid during future government shutdowns and are equipped with the latest technology, discussing the future of the agency as the Trump administration pushes to make airport screening a job for private contractors.
Members of the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on ways to modernize the Transportation Security Administration nearly 25 years after it was created in the wake of the September 11 attacks. but TSA officer morale Those who have remained unpaid during three funding cuts since Oct. 1, and whom the administration wants to replace at small U.S. airports, have overshadowed talk of better machinery and reliable financing.
“Between the shutdowns in 2025 and 2026, transportation security officers suffered a total of 119 days affected by shutdown conditions,” Republican Andrew Garbarino of New York, the committee’s chairman, said in his opening remarks. “This means that TSA officers spent nearly 40% of this fiscal year working without pay while continuing to carry out one of the most important security missions in the federal government.”
Several other committee members noted that Congress Failed to pass Any of the pending bills that seek to ensure continued pay for TSA workers. Rep. Lou Correa, a California Democrat, said if TSA workers aren’t getting paid during the shutdowns, neither should lawmakers.
Correa also targeted President Donald Trump Proposed budgetwhich in addition to spending $477.3 million to have private companies handle airport screening at about 250 airports, would cut more than 4,500 TSA jobs to save $529.3 million in compensation and benefits. The TSA this week also allowed contractors in the airport’s employment program to obtain and maintain screening equipment, which previously was a purely government function.
“Technology alone cannot replace the experienced people who make security checkpoints work as they have for the past 25 years,” Correa said. “It’s about pushing the anti-government ideology of privatization.”
About 20 U.S. airports already operate their own screening points through the Screening Partnership Program. For now, airports are choosing whether or not to participate. Under Trump’s proposed budget, smaller airports would be required to participate.
Witnesses at the hearing included Christopher Sununu, president and CEO of commercial airline group Airlines for America; Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport CEO Chris McLaughlin; President Everett Kelly of the American Federation of Government Employees, whose union represents TSA workers. The three said they believe airports should decide whether or not to use special screening devices.
“Ensuring SPP remains an option for airports and does not become a mandatory program is critical to the U.S. aviation industry,” Sununu said.
Kelly took a strong stance against the plans in Trump’s budget.
He said: “I am completely against the privatization of any airport.” “You’re not contracting with the CIA, are you?”
After several Democrats on the committee said they believed handing over airport security to corporations would make American airspace more vulnerable, Garbarino interjected to point out that “very conservative cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Atlanta” all use private screening devices at their airports, “so yeah, that’s probably not a Republican thing to do.”