A White House budget proposal for 2027 has infuriated experts who believe Donald Trump's administration would make air travel dangerous.
Cuts to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) were flagged by the document, which if passed could see the agency's funding cut drastically. Experts speaking to The Hill warned there could be a dangerous privatization effort at play from the Trump admin, which may be seeking an alternative to the TSA.
The White House requested a TSA budget of $11.7 billion for Fiscal Year 2027, including 53,199 positions and 50,398 full-time equivalents (FTEs). This marks a reduction of 8,385 positions and 9.439 FTEs from 2026.
Further cuts were proposed by the new budget, including 2,462 Transportation Security Officer (TSO) positions and 4,351 TSO FTEs. The congressional justification document reads, "Despite these reductions, TSA will maintain all priority mission-critical positions to ensure operational effectiveness and mission continuity."
Despite the documents assuring further use of the TSA, experts believe the changes made to the organization and how many staff members it keeps on will undeniably push the department towards privatization.
Johnny Jones, AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees) TSA Council 100 secretary treasurer and AFGE Local 1040 president, said, "I would not personally want to fly if I knew the whole entire system was privatized because it’s just not safe for the American people."
"Because that’s all privatization is — bottom line is profit. P is for profit, not for people,” he continued. “It’s very important that people understand what privatization is. It has nothing to do with your security or your safety. It has everything to do with somebody making a profit."
An AFGE spokesperson went on to suggest this had been a cut the union had been expecting. They said, "This is something we have expected, it is part of Project 2025. We take this threat very seriously and will be in the fight to ensure it doesn’t happen."
President George W. Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on November 19, 2001. The TSA officially began operations on February 17, 2002, taking over airport security screening from private contractors to enhance aviation safety nationwide.