Today, we commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and reflect on the worst day in modern American history. In the aftermath of that tragedy, we experienced something that is rare to find today: bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. Barely two months after 9/11, Congress created the Transportation Security Administration, building on a bipartisan consensus that airport security was too important to leave to chance.
Fast forward to the spring of this year, and the contrast could not be starker — with our domestic aviation security paying the price. For more than two months, travelers waited in multi-hour lines at TSA Checkpoints around the country, missing flights, family events, and business meetings. Not because of a threat. Not because of weather. Because of partisan politics.
The Department of Homeland Security ran out of money on Feb. 14, and TSA officers were forced to work without pay as both sides of the aisle tried to leverage this failure of governance to their benefit. Across the country, callout rates at some airports topped 40%. Checkpoints were consolidated. PreCheck lanes went dark. More than 1,100 officers simply quit. By the time the 76-day lapse ended on April 30, TSA had recorded the longest wait times in its history.
Here is the part that should make every traveler angry: We have already paid for the security that our politicians were using as negotiating leverage. Every one-way ticket in America carries a $5.60 September 11 Security Fee, intended to finance the aviation security system to ensure smooth operations. It brings in more than $4 billion a year, with no adjustments for inflation over the years. However, since 2014, Congress has quietly skimmed roughly a third of it — some $15 billion so far — off the top, booking it as “deficit reduction” and using that money for a variety of pet projects it was never intended for. The fee that was created to fund airport security has been funding everything, but while the people who screen our bags are forced to work for free, our domestic aviation system is subject to shutdowns and delays.
Domestic air travel is a public good, and its security should not be a bargaining chip.
In July, the House passed the SAFEGUARDS Act, and the Senate companion has cleared committee. The bill dedicates the first $750 million of annual September 11 fee revenue to checked-baggage and checkpoint technology, and it declares that diverting the September 11 fee “undermines public trust” and must end no later than 2027.
But there is more work to be done in this policy space. Ending diversion entirely is necessary. As long as every dollar of TSA’s operating budget still runs through the annual appropriations gauntlet, a fee dedicated to security can be honored on paper and still fail to reach a checkpoint when the government closes.
We propose a structural fix: the creation of an Aviation Security Trust Fund. Deposit the entire 9/11 fee, with a legislated mandate to adjust for inflation, into a dedicated, no-year account at the Treasury that can only be spent on aviation security. Give TSA multi-year authority to draw from it for three things: checkpoint technology, an enhanced Screening Partnership Program that creates efficiencies in screening, and the public-private partnerships that newly confirmed Administrator David Cummins has proposed and that aviation security modernization desperately needs. Congress would keep every bit of its oversight — it would still set authorization levels, still hold hearings, still audit the books. Partisan politicians’ ability to force airport delays for political leverage, however, would be greatly reduced.
This is not exotic. Though in need of updates of its own, the Highway Trust Fund has worked on a similar principle for decades: Users pay a dedicated charge baked into the normal course of business, and the money goes to the thing they paid for on a multi-year basis. Nobody thinks it is a scandal that gas taxes help fund roads. It should not be controversial that the airport security fee funds airport security and reliable operations. Frankly, it is scandalous that not every dollar collected does.
The fiscal case is just as strong as the fairness case. Multi-year money is cheaper money. TSA cannot sign multi-year contracts for checkpoint technology when it does not know whether it will have money to pay its bills in two months. Vendors price that uncertainty in, and the American taxpayer pays for it.
A stable funding base also unlocks the modernization that Cummins unveiled in his Horizon 25 strategy: smarter checkpoints, a better passenger experience, and an expanded SPP that brings private capital and private operators to market under federal standards and federal oversight.
The SPP already runs the checkpoints in San Francisco, Kansas City, and nearly two dozen other airports, and has for years, without a single lapse in operations or standards. An enhanced SPP, with contractors able to invest in and maintain the technology they operate, enables a 25-year-old agency to modernize faster than the federal procurement cycle allows.
THE LEFT IS GASLIGHTING YOU ABOUT ABDUL EL SAYED’S 9/11 POSTS
We want to be clear about what we are not proposing. We are not proposing that TSA leave the federal government, that security standards be relaxed, or that Congress surrender its purse. We are proposing that the money travelers already pay be walled off from fights they did not start and pet projects they did not ask for, and that the agency responsible for aviation security be allowed to plan further than 12 months ahead.
TSA turns 25 in November. It’s well past time that we take the politics out of aviation security and provide a sustainable model to build the next era of air travel facilitation.
Chad F. Wolf serves as chair of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security during President Donald Trump’s first term. Thomas K. Plofchan III is a senior fellow for homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute. He previously served as senior counselor for counterterrorism and intelligence to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.