President Donald Trump鈥檚 nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration sought to ease concerns over at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, saying the existing program is 鈥減ro-worker鈥� and won’t be a threat to the future of TSA鈥檚 workforce.
David Cummins, a former senior vice president at government contractor Serco, would take over an agency with roughly 60,000 employees responsible for security operations at more than 440 airports nationwide. He would inherit a TSA that has faced persistent , particularly after this year鈥檚 left TSA employees working for weeks . The funding lapse prompted thousands of officers to call out of work and about 1,100 to quit altogether, leading to at some U.S. airports.
In his opening statement, Cummins pledged to prioritize front line TSA officers, saying his first task, if confirmed, would be to visit airports and reassure employees that he would 鈥渄o everything in my power to protect and support them in the future.鈥�
鈥淭he challenges ahead are significant,鈥� Cummins told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. 鈥淏ut the opportunities to transform the TSA on the eve of its 25th anniversary are even greater.鈥�
The agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to bring passenger screening under a single federal agency. But a program established a few years later for screening operations under TSA oversight.
Democratic lawmakers and the union representing TSA officers have raised concerns that expanding the program, called the Screening Partnership Program, amounts to privatizing a core government security function and could undermine TSA employees.
Cummins rejected that characterization and defended the Trump administration鈥檚 plans to expand the program, saying it is not anti-worker and arguing that airports under the screening program were able to continue paying their employees during past government shutdowns.
鈥淪ome will suggest that the SPP is all about privatization and that it is anti-worker,鈥� Cummins said. 鈥淚 hold that it is in fact pro-worker to pay your employees, as the SPP airports did during the last shutdowns.鈥�
Cummins said existing TSA employees would have the 鈥渞ight of first refusal鈥� to take screening jobs at airports that join the program and said, 鈥渋n our experience, all of them take the jobs and they stay there.鈥�
He also said he supports legislation, including the bipartisan Keep America Flying Act, that would during future funding lapses. He said there is 鈥渢oo much at stake鈥� to leave the agency vulnerable to political brinkmanship.
Pressed by Democratic lawmakers about Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s from some airports in so-called sanctuary cities, Cummins said he had not been briefed on any 鈥渘ear-term plans鈥� to do so but acknowledged the impact politics can have on aviation security.
鈥淲hat I would say is that we are in a very sort of politicized environment. We all need to recognize that aviation security is impaired oftentimes by politics,鈥� Cummins said, adding that he would be candid with Congress if any such directive threatened TSA operations.
previously worked at Serco, which partners with federal, state and local agencies. A LinkedIn profile that has since been removed said he helped develop transportation technologies and was co-awarded a 鈥渄ozen patents in transportation systems.鈥� The profile also said he led operations planning for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
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