FY 2027 Budget: They Want to Cut Us Out
The budgets and reporting show them cutting 18,739 TSO jobs. That could be any of us.
The official DHS budget materials say SPP funding would increase by $477.3 million while TSA would cut 4,528 positions and 4,528 FTE in screener pay and benefits for that change alone. The same budget also says TSA’s total workforce would drop by 8,385 positions and 9,439 FTE from FY 2026 levels. euters reported that more than 4,500 of the proposed cuts would come from the privatization shift itself, with another 4,800 coming from “efficiency” moves such as exit-lane cuts and eliminating redundancies. GoldPlus compounds that threat by inviting contractors to redesign staffing models around automation, AI-driven threat detection, remote screening, and robotics. That’s 18,739 TSO jobs gone.
The White House says its FY 2027 proposal “begins the privatization of TSA’s airport screeners.” TSA leadership then told Congress that SPP is an “excellent example” of private-sector coordination and asked for a major funding increase to expand and “modernize” it. GoldPlus goes beyond even that budget proposal: according to TSA briefing material reported by Federal News Network, it would put private operators in charge of both the screening workforce and the screening technology while TSA shifts toward an oversight role.
“The Budget begins the privatization of TSA’s airport screeners.” -WHITE HOUSE BUDGET
This is also not just about small airports. Federal News Network reported that TSA has been briefing larger airports on GoldPlus, even while the FY 2027 budget targets the smallest commercial airports first. In short: the administration’s budget opens the door, SPP expansion normalizes the shift, and GoldPlus is the mechanism that could carry privatization much further across the system.
“Nothing is off the table.” ACTING TSA ADMINISTRATOR, ON PRIVATIZING ALL OF TSA
