By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – A group representing major U.S. airlines opposes a White House proposal to require smaller airports to use private security screeners instead of the Transportation Security Administration, according to written testimony seen by Reuters.
Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu will tell a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday that ensuring that private security “remains an option for airports and does not become a mandatory program is paramount to the U.S. aviation industry.”
President Donald Trump last month proposed cutting more than 9,400 workers and just over $1.5 billion from the annual budget of the 60,000-employee TSA that handles airport security operations.
The proposal is a first step toward privatizing the agency created after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Some Republican lawmakers have proposed to privatize TSA completely.
The White House said the mandatory change to private security at small airports would cut the TSA payroll by more than 4,500 jobs. The TSA proposes to cut another 4,800 jobs by improving efficiency, ending staffing at exit lanes and eliminating redundancies.
Sununu’s testimony added: “We are committed to TSA’s modernization efforts and support innovative solutions that accelerate the deployment of checkpoint and checked baggage technology as well as algorithms that increase efficiency.”
The proposal would cut the agency’s $7.8 billion budget by about 20% and comes after TSA lost more than 1,600 workers during government funding disruptions last fall and this spring.
Trump last week nominated David Cummins, a senior vice president of Serco North America who oversees its federal, state and local government civilian customer portfolio, to head the TSA.
The Biden administration increased the size of the TSA, which screened a record-high 906 million passengers in 2025.
The union that represents TSA security officers, the American Federation of Government Employees, opposes privatization, saying it would make air travel less safe.
Trump has been critical of the TSA. He fired its head, David Pekoske, whom he had tapped to head the agency in his first term, on his first day back in office in 2025. President Joe Biden had nominated Pekoske for a new term in 2022.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jamie Freed)
