Trump to nominate David Cummins as TSA administrator

Washington — President Trump intends to nominate David Cummins to pb the Transportation Security Administration, according to a idiosyncratic acquainted with the decision.

Cummins presently serves arsenic elder vice president of national services astatine Serco, a authorities services contractor. He has held aggregate enactment roles successful proscription and operations, including arsenic a manager for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the TSA's acting administrator, volition assistance with the enactment transition, the root said.

The nomination, which has not yet been formally announced, would spot Cummins atop the bureau liable for information screening astatine U.S. airports and different proscription hubs.

Cummins would instrumentality implicit the TSA astatine a clip erstwhile it is grappling with backing instability, staffing shortfalls and mounting operational unit arsenic U.S. question volumes surge. He volition look a Senate confirmation process amid the longest partial authorities shutdown successful history.

In caller legislature testimony, McNeill warned that prolonged backing lapses person strained the agency's workforce and operations, with rising absenteeism, attrition and agelong checkpoint hold times astatine immoderate airports. She said the bureau is struggling to prosecute and clasp officers during fund uncertainty, adjacent arsenic it prepares for large planetary events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

More than 780 TSA officers person resigned during the ongoing DHS shutdown. DHS officials fearfulness that fig could ascent — the erstwhile shutdown successful 2025 drove astir 1,100 officers to permission the agency. For a workforce of conscionable nether 50,000, the staffing shortages person semipermanent implications for recruitment and retention.

The past Senate-confirmed TSA head was David Pekoske, who was confirmed to a 2nd five-year word successful 2022. McNeill, who has served arsenic acting administrator, antecedently held elder roles astatine TSA and crossed the nationalist information assemblage and has emphasized the request for unchangeable backing and operational continuity.