By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of David Cummins, a senior vice president of Serco, to head the Transportation Security Administration as the Trump administration pushes to privatize screeners at smaller airports.
President Donald Trump proposed in April cutting more than 9,400 workers and just over $1.5 billion, or about 20%, from the annual budget of the 60,000-employee TSA that handles airport security operations.
A final vote is set for next week. Serco offers engineering, IT, and training services to federal, state and local governments, and commercial customers.
Trump also proposed requiring smaller airports to use private security, a move that would cut the TSA payroll by more than 4,500 jobs in a first step toward privatizing the agency created after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Airports in Tampa, Des Moines, Iowa, and Charleston, South Carolina, said last week they were planning to proceed with privatizing airport security. About 20 airports, including those in San Francisco, Kansas City and Sarasota, Florida, have long used private security screeners.
Trump fired TSA head David Pekoske on the president’s first day in office in 2025 and did not nominate a replacement for 16 months. Trump had nominated Pekoske during his first term and former President Joe Biden nominated him for a second five-year term.
A lengthy government shutdown this spring forced 50,000 TSA workers to go without pay for six weeks, resulting in major disruptions, including airport security waits extending four hours or more.
Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. airlines, said in May that it opposes the White House proposal to require smaller airports to use private security screeners instead of the TSA.
Last year, the White House said, “TSA has consistently failed audits while implementing intrusive screening measures that violate Americans’ privacy and dignity.”
The Homeland Security Department said in September it was removing five senior officials on suspicion of targeting Biden’s political opponents with a now-abolished aviation security watchlist.
TSA’s “Quiet Skies” program, scrapped in June 2025, had required enhanced screening for some air passengers deemed to be a higher security risk.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Rod Nickel)
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