President Donald Trump is proposing an increase to the 9/11
Passenger Security Fee assessed on an airline tickets, according to the
Associated Press.
The fee, which is currently $5.60 per one-way flight and
helps fund the TSA, would increase to $6.60 under the proposal. AP said it
viewed the proposal in draft documents for the 2018 Department of Homeland
Security budget.
The report came Monday, the same day that Office of
Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney briefed reporters in broad strokes
about Trump's budget blueprint. The president is calling for a $54 billion
increase in military spending and his budget also prioritizes "protecting
the nation and securing the border," Mulvaney said.
Trump will speak about his budget priorities in an address
before Congress Tuesday night. The full budget won't be released until May,
Mulvaney said.
Any proposed increase in the 9/11 Passenger Security Fee
would likely encounter resistance from U.S. airlines. Since 2013, Congress has
diverted about one-third of the fee to nonsecurity-related costs. In 2015,
passengers paid $3.5 billion in 9/11 security fees, of which $1.19 billion was
diverted, according to the trade group Airport Councils International--North
America.
The trade organization Airlines for America (A4A) called for
an end to that practice last May as long airport security lines, caused
partially by funding shortages that had impacted TSA staffing, made national
headlines.
On Tuesday, A4A
spokesman Vaughn Jennings said it would be premature to comment since the Trump
administration has not released an official budget proposal. However, Jennings
noted that generally speaking, A4A believes Congress should reapply existing
TSA passenger security fees to security, rather than increase them.
The White House press office declined to comment.