3 US Airports Opting Into Privatized Security Screenings
In the latest instance of President Donald Trump trying to privatize the federal government, three U.S. airports have announced they will be opting into a program that places control of security screenings with private security companies.
The New York Times reports that the Tampa International Airport, Des Moines International Airport and Charleston International Airport have signed on to Gold+. The program has been sold as an extension of an existing program in 20 U.S. airports where private security conducts screenings as opposed to TSA agents. The Gold+ program is expected to be implemented in the three airports throughout 2027.
So what exactly is Gold+?
From the New York Times:
Under Gold+, private contractors would be in control of security screening functions and the screening technology itself, according to the union. The T.S.A. would continue to have regulatory oversight.
The agency did not respond to questions regarding how long the transitions would take or what the procurement process for private screening contractors would look like. But an email sent from the agency to the union’s council president on Monday, which was obtained by The New York Times, said security officers at the three airports underwent briefings this week regarding the new program and what it would mean for employees.
The email included the following transition dates: January 2027 for Des Moines, February 2027 for Charleston and May 2027 for Tampa.
This move has not gone over well with the thousands of TSA employees who are part of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 47,000 TSA agents.
“Changes of this magnitude should not be made behind closed doors without the input of Congress, the flying public, the local airport authorities, and T.S.A. employees themselves,” Everett Kelley, the union’s national president, told the Times. Kelley warned that the push towards privatization could also undermine public safety. “We don’t have to theorize about what that may look like because we have been through this before.”
Before 9/11, airport security was largely overseen by a patchwork of various private security companies. The TSA was founded two months after the 9/11 attacks and has overseen airport security for the last two decades. Unlike the previous status quo, Gold+ will be directly overseen by the federal government.
The justification for the return to privatized airport security stems from last year’s government shutdown. As a result of TSA agents going over a month without pay, many of them called out and took on other jobs to cover their needs. This led to hourslong security checkpoint lines at some of the nation’s busiest airports.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, which saw lines as long as four hours during the shutdown, is currently undergoing an independent study to determine whether it should privatize its security screenings. The three airports that opted into Gold+ have argued that it will prevent disruption to security screenings as well as provide access to technology that would’ve taken years to implement under the federal government.
The shutdown only exacerbated the ongoing labor shortage facing the TSA, with hundreds of agents having quit over the last year. So while, yes, this is a pretty crappy deal for TSA agents, I’ll acknowledge that there are some legitimate reasons for pursuing a program like Gold+.
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3 US Airports Opting Into Privatized Security Screenings was originally published on newsone.com
