Discarded TSA Flyer at Orlando Airport Reveals Secret $12.9 Billion GoldPlus Privatization Program

A TSA-branded briefing flyer found at Orlando International Airport in February 2026 exposed a previously undisclosed federal program called GoldPlus, a public-private partnership making nearly $13 billion in federal funds available to private companies to take over both the screening workforce and screening technology at participating airports. The flyer, shared with a Federal News Network reporter and first reported in April 2026, described GoldPlus as "a new public-private partnership aimed at modernizing aviation security at select airports across the country."

TSA had been developing and marketing the program to vendors and airport executives since at least August 2025, when the agency issued a request for information referencing "new GoldPlus public-private screening mode acquisitions." A second RFI followed in September 2025, and two TSA officials briefed the Airports Council International conference in Chicago on the program. GoldPlus differs from the existing Screening Partnership Program, which has operated since 2004 at 20 airports and under which private contractors manage the screening workforce while TSA retains ownership of the equipment; under GoldPlus, private operators would control both the workforce and the screening technology. The Trump administration's fiscal 2027 budget proposal would separately expand the Screening Partnership Program to approximately 250 of the smallest commercial airports, while GoldPlus targets larger airports beyond that group.

TSA notified the American Federation of Government Employees in late July 2026 that it intends to launch GoldPlus at three airports beginning in 2027: Tampa International Airport, Charleston International Airport, and Des Moines International Airport. Tampa, which handled approximately 23 million passengers in 2025, confirmed it has formally opted into the program, which would make it the largest US airport to operate under privatized screening, surpassing San Francisco International Airport. Charleston, which shares its airfield with Joint Base Charleston, handled approximately 6 million passengers in 2023. On August 5, 2026, AFGE filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against TSA in federal court, seeking to compel the agency to release documents related to GoldPlus's development, planning, and marketing, after submitting a FOIA request in May 2026 that went unanswered within the legally required 20-business-day window and after TSA indicated it would charge a $25 processing fee. AFGE's general counsel Rushab Sanghvi told USA Today that TSA was "pushing through this privatization effort sort of in the shadows without much information to the public."

This dispute sits at the intersection of federal screening policy and airport operations: a security function long treated as a government monopoly is being restructured through vendor outreach and budget language before any public rulemaking process runs its course. The Screening Partnership Program already shows that private screening workforces can coexist with TSA-owned equipment at 20 airports since 2004; GoldPlus goes further by handing over the technology layer too, which changes who controls procurement, upgrades, and equipment standards at the checkpoint.

How this segment works depends heavily on who holds ownership of the screening equipment, because that determines whether an airport's checkpoint technology roadmap is set by TSA specifications or by a private operator's commercial choices. Tampa's move to become the largest airport under privatized screening, ahead of San Francisco, will test whether a major hub sees faster checkpoint throughput or new vendor dependencies once GoldPlus takes over both staffing and hardware.

The FOIA lawsuit is the immediate thing to watch: what documents TSA is compelled to release will show how far GoldPlus has already progressed with vendors and airport executives before Charleston and Des Moines follow Tampa into the program in 2027.