Reject Any Proposal to Privatize the Transportation Security Administration

I urge you to reject any proposal to privatize the Transportation Security Administration. The push to replace federal screeners with private contractors ignores the hard‑won lessons that led to TSA’s creation after 9/11. Private airport screeners failed on 9/11. The hijackers passed through privately run checkpoints at the airports where they boarded. Before TSA existed, airlines and airports often chose the lowest bidders, and those companies cut training, wages, and staffing to reduce costs. That race to the bottom created glaring security gaps, and the country paid a devastating price. Privatizing TSA will take us backward. Private companies face layoffs and financial instability during downturns far more than the federal government. Using a shutdown as justification for this shift makes no sense. A shutdown creates chaos by design; it does not prove that private contractors offer better security. It only proves that withholding pay from federal workers destabilizes the system. This proposal will weaken airport security, reduce workforce experience, and create turnover that undermines threat detection. It will not save money. We cannot gamble with national security to chase negligible cost reductions. We need to learn from past failures, not repeat them. Congress can resolve TSA’s pay and funding instability immediately by passing a DHS budget that requires ICE and CBP to follow the same basic guidelines that every other law‑enforcement agency in this country must comply with.