The White House released its budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year on Friday, which includes a massive increase in military spending and major cuts to FEMA, federal health agencies, and the EPA, among others.
The proposal, which is available online, also includes small steps to privatize the Transportation Security Administration in what’s understood to be a step toward the long term goal of completely abolishing airport security as a government function.
“The Budget begins the privatization of TSA’s airport screeners by requiring small airports to enroll in the Screening Partnership Program, under which TSA pays for private screeners at designated airports,” the document released Friday explains.
Twenty airports participate in the Screening Partnership Program, which allows them to use private security contractors hired with public money. Some airports have joined and then withdrawn from SPP over the years since it was first instituted in 2004.
“The move would yield cost savings compared to Federal screening and begin reform of a troubled Federal agency,” the budget proposal reads.
The agency is admittedly troubled, but for extremely obvious reasons. Congress has not passed legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, of which TSA is a part. Democrats have refused to fund DHS without modest reforms to ICE, but Republicans have refused. The shutdown caused long lines at airports around the country, at least until recently.
President Trump has tried various unlawful maneuvers to fix the problem, first deploying ICE agents to airports to work with TSA. He then signed an executive order to pay TSA officers, though it’s not clear where the money is being allocated from. Under the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the power to appropriate money.
The 2027 budget proposal was prepared by Russ Vought, who was instrumental in writing Project 2025, the plan that gained notoriety in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election. Vought believes in privatizing many parts of the federal government and cutting the rest to the bone, provided it’s not the military.
Aside from TSA, the folks over at the White House have some alarming ideas about what they’d like to accomplish next year with the budget. They’ve requested $1.5 trillion for the military, which would boost defense spending to the highest point in modern history, according to CNN. And it also includes $152 million to fulfill President Trump’s dream to reopen Alcatraz, the prison island that was closed down in 1963.
The proposal would also cut $2 billion from humanitarian assistance, $393 million from housing assistance programs, and $1.2 billion for the Food For Peace program that provides food to impoverished people around the world.
The budget is about what you’d expect Trump and his cronies to present after taking a chainsaw to the federal government with DOGE.
