Republicans in Congress are eyeing changes to the Transportation Security Administration, with some arguing that its security operations should be privatized.
Republican lawmakers see the agency as exactly the type of government spending they should try to scale back on. They argue that an overhaul, or even abolishing it altogether, is necessary, even if they emphasize that they believe airport security is crucial.
“Ninety-five percent of the time, they miss. TSA misses anything that could cause problems on airplanes,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach, told NOTUS. “Ninety-five percent of the time. Now [I would have gotten] fired if I lost 95% of my games. So either do it right, or let’s give it to somebody else. And again, we need security. We just need to do something different.”
TSA did not respond to a request for comment. Most Republican lawmakers who support reimagining the agency did not point to specific incidents that have prompted these concerns. But the agency in the past has received scrutiny after failing internal security reviews.
“Our current setup with TSA, it’s a mess,” Sen. Josh Hawley said. “Obviously, the creation of TSA within DHS long predates me. But I’m open to other suggestions, so long as passenger security, and we’ve got to maintain that. But the TSA, the number of complaints, I’m just thinking from a homeland security perspective, the different complaints that we get, the number of security breaches, it’s a lot.”
Tuberville and Sen. Mike Lee recently introduced a bill to “abolish” the TSA, which was established by the Aviation and Security Transportation Act under President George W. Bush’s administration to tighten security at airports after 9/11. For years, it has played a role in checking baggage for prohibited items as well as other security operations at airports across the country.
Tuberville and Lee’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether they’ve had conversations with leadership about the bill, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office referred NOTUS to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The office of Sen. Ted Cruz, who serves as committee chair, did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did a spokesperson for the committee.
In a release about the legislation, Tuberville and Lee called the agency “bloated and ineffective.” The bill is aimed at transferring many of TSA’s security responsibilities to “qualified” private companies. Other “non-aviation” security tasks would move to the Department of Transportation.
Sen. Katie Britt, who serves in the Alabama delegation with Tuberville, told NOTUS that she’s “always open to ways” on how to improve security at airports. However, Britt said she would need to “take a look at the issue” when asked about the job TSA is currently doing when it comes to security.
While TSA handles security screenings at the vast majority of airports, some of them are already operating with select private companies under the Screening Partnership Program.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sen. Rand Paul, was open to an overhaul, telling reporters that he believes that the “random checks they’re doing now are of no value and more invasive.”
All of these conversations are happening in the context of airport and flight security getting more attention after the deadly crash in January near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
They are also happening in the context of Republicans expressing some appetite to privatize other parts of government, like the United States Postal Service (though some Republicans in Congress have balked at that suggestion).
While other Republicans seemed interested in the possibility of privatizing security checks currently done by TSA, they didn’t say that the agency was doing a bad job.
Rep. Brian Mast told NOTUS that it is “worth debating” whether a private company should benefit financially from handling security screenings. But he added that TSA has “done a good job” at preventing another 9/11.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito told NOTUS that she’s “sure the TSA could use improvement,” but overall the agency does “a pretty good job.”
Sen. Thom Tillis told NOTUS that a hybrid solution could provide better service at airports.
“What I think works best in the private sector is you could still have TSA government employees responsible for general operations,” Tillis said. “But then you have a contractor staff that gives you flex.”
Meanwhile, Democrats don’t think the legislation makes much sense.
“That’s stupid,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told NOTUS about the idea. “The reason we ended up having 9/11 is because we had privatized security screenings. Why are we going to go back to what caused 9/11 in the first place?”
Sen. Andy Kim told NOTUS that he hadn’t heard about the bill, but thinks the idea could create security issues.
“I’d probably have some concerns in terms of the ability to just make sure that the security is the level that I would want,” Kim said. “I don’t see why we need to be moving in that direction. I haven’t heard any credible argument for that at this point.”
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Torrence Banks is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.