New TSA Chief Pushes Screening Privatization Expansion as Another U.S. Government Shutdown Looms
Why It MattersThe episode shows checkpoint staffing at federally screened airports remains exposed to funding lapses in a way that privately contracted screening under the decades-old partnership model has so far avoided.
What happened
David Cummins was sworn in as TSA Administrator on Aug. 7 after Senate confirmation, following a career in the private sector and two months as a TSA senior advisor, and is now pushing to expand the agency's Screening Partnership Program (SPP) as the government faces the prospect of another shutdown beginning Oct. 1. At his July confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, chairman Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called a funding lapse at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 "very likely." Cummins told the committee that checkpoint screeners' "morale is very, very low right now" and cited significant attrition after two recent shutdowns, including departures of workers with 20 or more years of service.
A 76-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown that ended April 30 left more than 47,000 TSA screeners, who earn an average annual salary of $65,000, unpaid for weeks. Screener no-show rates reached 40-50% at some major airports, forcing TSA to close security lanes and causing checkpoint lines to stretch for hours in some locations; around 1,100 screeners left the agency during that shutdown. A separate government-wide shutdown in late 2025 also left screeners unpaid.
The SPP has existed since 2002 and lets airports opt out of federalized security for TSA-vetted private contractors, but only 20 mostly smaller airports currently participate. San Francisco International Airport, an SPP participant since the program's start, avoided the exceptionally long checkpoint lines that disrupted travel during the earlier shutdown. In an Aug. 24 statement, Cummins said an "evolved Screening Partnership Program" would replace the "TSA Gold Plus" initiative unveiled in May, and that current TSA screeners would have the right of first refusal for jobs with private firms taking over security under an expanded SPP. On the same day, Tampa International Airport, which had opted into Gold Plus, announced it had completed a months-long review and would keep screening exclusively with TSA. Cummins is also accelerating deployment of CT scanners, a biometric facial recognition identification initiative, and rescission of the shoes-off screening policy, and has scheduled a September conference on wider technology upgrades. He replaces acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, who led TSA through the 2025 and 2026 shutdowns over nearly 18 months and will leave Sept. 3.
Industry impact & what to watch
This is a case of a federal agency responding to repeated funding disruptions by shifting operational risk toward a model that has proven less exposed to those disruptions. The SPP's structure, unpaid federal furloughs do not directly halt contractor payroll in the same way, explains why an SPP airport like San Francisco kept moving passengers while federally staffed checkpoints elsewhere closed lanes and built multi-hour lines during the 76-day lapse.
How far this expands will depend on which airports opt in and how quickly private firms can staff up, since only 20 airports currently use the program and Tampa's decision to stay with TSA despite completing a formal review of Gold Plus shows local resistance remains even after high-profile disruption. The right-of-first-refusal commitment for existing screeners is one lever meant to ease that transition, but it does not itself compel any airport to convert.
The next dated marker is the Sept. 30 funding deadline: whether Congress avoids another lapse will shape how urgently airports weigh opting into an expanded SPP, and Cummins' September technology conference will show whether CT scanners, biometric ID and screening-policy changes move forward on a similar timeline regardless of the shutdown outcome.
