Three airports have signed on to the TSA's new Gold+ privatized screening program: Tampa, Charleston, S.C., and Des Moines, Iowa.
The program, which builds on the TSA's long-existing Screening Partnership Program (SPP), is part of a Trump administration push for increasing privatization of airport screening. It's strongly opposed by the Association of Federal Government Employees (AFGE), the union representing TSA workers.
The TSA did not provide timelines for the transitions, though a Des Moines airport news release said its transition would come after the opening of a new terminal early next year. The AFGE said all three transitions will occur next year.
The SPP program, which has been in place since 2004, enables airports to allow the TSA to select a private contractor to conduct airport screening rather than federal TSA workers. The contractor must still adhere to TSA regulations.
There has been minimal uptake. Just 20 airports participate in the program, the largest of those being San Francisco Airport, followed by Kansas City. Most participants are small airports.
The Gold+ program, which the TSA set-up in May, will go beyond SPP by having the contracted screening company own the screening technology, a move that the TSA says will free airports from protracted federal procurement processes, enabling quicker checkpoint innovation.
Des Moines Airport CEO Brian Mulcahy cited that change in explaining the airport's considerations.
"This is a TSA program that offers the opportunity to pair TSA security oversight with some of the newest checkpoint technology available," he said. "As we prepare to open our new terminal, we're excited for this leap forward in technology that would improve the passenger experience."
The federal government shutdown last fall and the Department of Homeland Security shutdown this past winter and spring forced TSA agents to work for extended periods without pay and led to checkpoint chaos at some airports, including Houston Bush Intercontinental and Atlanta. The shutdowns spurred new attention on the longstanding SPP program and more generally on TSA privatization because workers at airports using privatized security continued to received regular paychecks.
Meanwhile, the Gold+ program is part of the Trump administration's own policy preference for privatization. In its April budget request, the White House proposed a requirement that small airports enroll in the SPP program.
TSA workers at airports that join the Gold+ program will have to transition to the private contractor or look for other work.
"Over the coming months, they'll have to choose from several options: take a job with the private screening company once one is selected, be reassigned to another airport with TSA vacancies, pursue a federal role with another agency, or retire if eligible," wrote Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who pens the Gate Access blog.
Mulcahy said that current security officers at Des Moines will have the first opportunities for jobs with the private screening company, once it is chosen.
The AFGE vowed to fight the privatization pushes in Des Moines, Charleston and Tampa. On its website, the union argues against privatization, saying that contractors' motivation for profit leads to lower pay, higher employee turnover and worse security.
"Make no mistake -- this is a major departure and step backwards from the aviation screening security system that Congress created in the wake of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 and the deadly bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988," AFGE national president Everett Kelley said in a July 21 statement.