Action Alert: Airport Input Needed to Restore Funding For Key Aviation Security Programs in 2025
March 26, 2024
As Congress gears up for the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) appropriations process, we need your help as we urge lawmakers to restore and maintain funding for critical airport priorities in the annual Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill. On March 11, as part of its annual budget submission, the Biden Administration proposed to eliminate $192.3 million in funding for TSA staffing at airport exit lanes, TSA's law enforcement officer (LEO) reimbursement grants, and state and local-led canine teams. Unfortunately, Congress agreed to two of these cost shifts in the final FY24 DHS Appropriations bill, which was signed on March 23, 2024. That bill eliminated funding for LEO and state and local-led canine team reimbursements but continued to fund TSA to staff exit lanes at airports.
Request: We need your help to convince lawmakers to fund our priorities in the upcoming appropriations process. Please reach out to your House members and two Senators and ask them to submit programmatic requests in support of these airport priorities in the FY25 DHS appropriations bills. Individual office deadlines for these types of requests are closing soon. Please make sure to personalize your letters with specific details about the impact of these cuts on your airport.
Contact information for your Representative is available via this link and for your Senators is available via this link.
Key priorities are:
• Fund TSA LEO Reimbursement Program: Airports urge Congress to restore $47.2 million for TSA's law enforcement officer (LEO) reimbursement program. These grants partially reimburse LEOs who respond to possible threats, like firearms or fentanyl, during the checkpoint screening process because TSA screeners do not have the authority to detain or make arrests. The FY25 budget proposes to eliminate these annual reimbursements while still requiring airports to provide TSA with law enforcement resources at checkpoints – a proposal that could weaken overall security by forcing airports to divert resources from other security purposes like patrolling public areas.
• Fund State and Local-Led Airport Canine Teams: Airports urge Congress to restore $34.1 million to fund state and local LEO-operated canine teams. TSA relies on these canine teams to detect explosives or explosive material at airports as part of its multi-layered security operations nationwide. The FY25 budget request proposes to end reimbursements for 675 teams. Eliminating funding for these state and local law enforcement-led canine teams could reduce a visible and highly effective deterrence measure at our nation's airports.
• Require TSA to Continue Staffing Exit Lanes: Despite federal law requiring TSA to permanently monitor exit points from sterile areas where the agency was performing those duties on December 1, 2013, the administration's FY25 budget request once again tries to shift these responsibilities to airports, saving TSA $111 million. Congress has consistently provided funding for TSA to staff these lanes each year, prohibiting the agency from abrogating its responsibility. Airports urge Congress to continue to require TSA to staff exit lanes as required by current law and reject any proposal to shift that cost to airports.
• Properly Resource TSA Security Checkpoints and CBP Air Ports-of-Entry: We urge Congress to provide TSA and CBP with the resources they need for more officers to handle the significant growth in passenger volumes and avoid lengthy wait times, and for new technologies to screen travelers and their baggage effectively and efficiently.
• Aviation Worker Screening: We urge Congress to direct TSA to rescind the requirement for airports to procure and utilize explosive detection screening equipment to screen aviation workers. If the requirement is implemented, airports would need to establish new screening infrastructure that parallels and may duplicate what TSA already has in place for travelers. Airports do not have the purchasing power or expertise to buy, deploy, and maintain expensive and sophisticated equipment nor do they have the trained personnel necessary to operate it. The requirement also represents a wholesale shift of screening responsibility from TSA to airport operators driven primarily by the agency's budget prioritization rather than security.
To help us be more effective on Capitol Hill as we advocate on these issues, please share specific airport impacts as a result of the loss of this funding and/or anticipated costs to fully implement the aviation worker screening requirements.
Thank you for your prompt assistance in advocating for the need to continue funding for these key airport security items on Capitol Hill.
