TSA Scraps Its Secretive Gold+ Program, But Airport Security Is Going Private Anyway

Credit: Department of Homeland Security Published Aug 26, 2026, 2:17 AM EDT Luke Diaz is a freelance military writer with experience with active duty experience in the US Navy as well as defense and industrial engineering. He is a former Naval Flight Officer who performed tactical air control on the carrier-based E-2 Hawkeye. Sign in to your Simple Flying account On August 24, Tampa International Airport (TPA) withdrew from the proposed rollout of a new private security screening program under the oversight of the Transportation Security Administration, dubbed the 'Gold+' program. Tampa was one of the first three airports slated to pilot a rollout that would help improve resilience during operational disruptions to the federal government. TSA Administrator David Cummins announced that the agency is abandoning the Gold+ plan to allow airfields to replace TSA agents with private security. However, it is now proposing an expansion of its Screening Partnership Program (SPP), which will still significantly increase the presence of private security agents at airports across the US. Tampa Stands By Its TSA Agents Credit: Shutterstock Tampa Bay News reported that the elimination of TSA jobs at TPA could have put nearly 800 employees out of work. Tampa Airport had originally opted in to avoid the extremely disruptive interruptions to security services as experienced during the partial and full government shutdowns over the past year. TPA leadership stated that the airport decided not to adopt private security in place of its federal agents after an extensive review and evaluation of how Gold+ would change terminal ops. The cancellation of the Gold+ rollout to Tampa, Charleston Air Force Base-International Airport (CHS), and Des Moines International Airport (DSM) appears to be a major win for federal employees on the surface. Still, questions remain about the intended scope of the significant increase SPP participation as announced by Administrator Cummins. Airport CEO Michael Stephens stated that the administration had carefully and deliberately considered how Gold+ might improve the flow of traffic for long-term stability. Ultimately, while the administrators expressed gratitude to TSA for attempting to provide an alternative, TPA decided against the removal of TSA agents. National Vice President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) District 5 Tatishka Thomas gave this statement following the announcement: “Ensuring the safety and security of the flying public is too important to contract out to the lowest bidder, and the Tampa Airport’s decision to reject TSA Gold+ is a clear vote of confidence in the federal employees who currently perform this critical work.” The TSA Gives Up On Gold+ Credit: Department of Homeland Security President Donald Trump was an outspoken advocate for the TSA Gold+ program when it was announced in July, but the TSA is now opting for a different approach. The SPP System under the TSA already effectively institutes the same policies that were envisioned under Gold+ and now the TSA wants to make it mandatory instead of voluntary. The proposal to force greater SPP participation on airports around the US has been much more subdued than the proclamation of the Gold+ initiative. There are currently 20 airfields around the country that work actively under the SPP umbrella. TSA now wants to raise that number tenfold to roughly 220. The impetus behind this push is the relatively minimal impact on operations seen at SPP-participating hubs during the recent, record-breaking federal shutdowns. Why The TSA Is Pushing SPP Credit: Shutterstock The record-breaking full federal government shutdown actually occurred earlier in the fall, running for 43 days from October 1 to November 12, 2025. During those 43 days in the fall of 2025, federal workers nationwide went weeks without a paycheck. Federal TSA screeners and air traffic controllers were forced to work unpaid, leading to mass personnel strains, high callout rates, and heavy flight delays across standard hubs. Because private contractors like those at San Francisco International (SFO) and Kansas City International (MCI) are paid through private payrolls rather than directly from the frozen federal budget, their screeners remained unaffected. Airfield ops went on uninterrupted at these hubs while many airports across the country suffered hours-long security lines as a result of the staff shortages. The US Travel Association detailed that the shutdowns dealt an estimated $6 billion economic toll on the wider travel and tourism sectors. TSA's pivot to greatly increasing the number of airports under SPP aims to reduce the impact of a future shutdown. Having at least partial staffing by private security would prevent the total collapse of service should there be another federal dispute over the budget that leaves TSA agents stuck in the middle, and without pay again.