Trump to tap government contracting expert to head TSA, sources say

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - ‌President Donald Trump ​intends to ​nominate a longtime business executive and government contracting expert to head the Transportation Security Administration, two sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Trump plans to ‌tap David Cummins, a senior vice president of Serco North America who ⁠oversees its federal, state, and local government civilian customer portfolio. Earlier this month, Trump proposed privatizing much ‌of TSA's operations and cutting nearly ‌10,000 employees.

Trump fired the head of TSA, David Pekoske, on the president's first day in office in 2025 and has not nominated a replacement in more than ​15 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.

Trump's budget calls for cutting TSA by more than $1.5 billion and seeks to require smaller airports to use private ​security instead of TSA as a first step ‌toward privatizing the agency created after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The White House said this change would cut the TSA payroll by ⁠more than 4,500 jobs. The TSA proposes to cut another 4,800 jobs by improving efficiency, ending staffing at exit lanes and eliminating redundancies.

The employee cuts would save more than $500 million.

The proposal would ⁠cut the agency's $7.8 billion budget by about 20% and comes after TSA lost more than 1,600 workers ​during government funding disruptions last fall and this spring.

The Biden administration increased the size of the TSA. It screened 904 million passengers in 2024, a record high and a 5% increase over 2023.

Last ‌year, the White House said, "TSA has consistently failed audits while implementing intrusive screening measures that violate Americans’ privacy and dignity."

In September, ‌the Homeland Security Department said 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, had required enhanced screening for some air passengers deemed to be a higher security risk.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul, ‌Rod Nickel)

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