TSA looks to privatize amid continued funding lapse woes

Kelly Livingston, CQ-Roll Call on Apr 16, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration gave a strong endorsement of President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2027 before a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday, saying proposed privatization and modernization efforts would help ensure the agency has the funds it needs amid congressional funding struggles.

“As of today, TSA has been shut down for 109 days, nearly 60 percent of FY26. If this year demonstrates anything, it is that the TSA workforce and our operations cannot depend on predictable congressional funding,” Ha Nguyen McNeill told the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

The White House budget request for Homeland Security agencies included an effort to begin privatizing the airport screening process, which the administration says would reduce costs by about $52 million. The proposal would require smaller airports to enroll in the Screening Partnership Program to allow TSA to pay for private screeners where needed. The administration said in its proposal that the program had already led to cost savings compared with federal operations for airports currently using the program.

This effort, McNeill said, represents a commitment to “strategic public-private partnerships” that could help insulate TSA workers from lapses in funding that have been frequent in recent fiscal years.

“Expanding SPP is one of the many avenues the Trump administration is pursuing to help protect our screening workforce from lapses in congressional appropriations,” McNeill said. “Until recently, TSA employees have missed nearly $1 billion in paychecks in this fiscal year. In contrast, SPP screeners have not yet missed a paycheck.”

She said her agency, which still has not seen full-year fiscal 2026 funding, has been in “damage control mode” in the current fiscal year.

Trump recently signed an executive order requiring TSA workers to be paid, despite the ongoing battle in Congress over DHS appropriations for the current fiscal year, but that intervention may have also relieved some of the urgency to resolve the funding discrepancy. The department has gone unfunded since mid-February.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, asked McNeill about the privatization proposal. “I can tell you, the TSA agents in my district are incredibly dedicated, incredibly hard working. They do not want to see TSA privatized. What can you share with the hard working federal workforce within TSA about the efforts to privatize?”

McNeill explained that 20 airports already operate under the SPP program that the presidential budget seeks to expand. She said the administration is still developing its legislative proposal on that effort, but that it would look at category three and four airports.

Multiple federal shutdowns over the last year have led to increased call out and attrition rates, McNeill told appropriators, causing operational issues that may be exacerbated by upcoming events, including the FIFA World Cup and America 250 celebrations, along with regular summer travel.

“And the longer the shutdown goes, the more unpredictable it’s going to be for us to see — to assess whether or not we’re going to have a spike in attrition,” McNeill said. “This is unprecedented, right?”

“We’ve never been in this situation before, and we are less than two months away from the FIFA World Cup,” she added. “It takes us four to six months to train up a new officer. And so with any spikes in attrition, it’s going to put us in a pretty difficult situation.”