The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced this week that it would be sunsetting the TSA Gold+ private security program at airports in favor of an existing partnership.
The existing partnership will be under the agency’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP).
The TSA unveiled the change as part of its Horizon 25 Strategy to honor the agency’s 25th anniversary, the agency said. The Horizon 25 Strategy will focus on modernizing TSA checkpoints, the traveler experience and beefing up transportation security, the agency noted. Here is why the TSA is shelving the TSA Gold+ program.
TSA first launched the TSA Gold+ program to allow airports to partner with private contractors to handle their security and screening operations. Agency officials said private security firms would have been able to personalize security measures for the individual airports, while complying with federal guidelines.
However, the TSA is shelving TSA Gold+ to expand the SPP, a program in which 20 airports outsource screening services to private companies under TSA oversight, according to the agency. Kansas City International Airport, Orlando Sanford International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are among the 20 airports included in the existing SPP program, according to TSA.
Tampa International Airport, one of the intended pilot airports of TSA Gold+, announced Monday that after reviewing the TSA’s partnership with TSA Gold+, it decided to stick with “existing federal TSA officers.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing 47,000 TSA workers, filed a lawsuit this month over its administration of the TSA’s Gold+ program before the agency announced the program’s end. The lawsuit asked the agency to release records about the program, accusing the agency of promoting it to contractors without notifying employees, congressional lawmakers or airport authorities.
