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Transportation Security Administration officers will no longer be permitted to sit while verifying passenger IDs at security checkpoints across U.S. airports, according to statements from both the agency and a major labor union on Tuesday.
Chairs are actively being removed from checkpoints, according to the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100. The union, which represents screening personnel, denounced the decision as a "disregard for workers' rights and safety" and emphasized that seating options "serve as basic ergonomic and safety support for officers that stand and walk on hard surfaces all day."
Confirming the policy shift, the TSA defended the decision, saying: "This welcome change reinforces both our security posture and our commitment to hospitality by having these officers on their feet and alert. All officers must meet fitness for duty requirements to be capable of performing their vital national security function."
The rule change comes amid wider structural changes proposed for the 60,000-employee agency. In April, President Donald Trump proposed eliminating more than 9,400 staff members and cutting just over $1.5 billion, or approximately 20 percent, from the TSA's annual operating budget.
Trump also proposed requiring smaller airports to transition to private security forces. That measure would trim the agency's payroll by more than 4,500 jobs, marking an initial step toward privatizing the agency created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Roughly 20 airports nationwide—including those in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Sarasota, Florida—have already used private security screeners for years. In August, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm David Cummins, a former senior vice president at UK-based government services company Serco, as the new TSA head.
Trump fired former TSA head David Pekoske on the president's first day in office in 2025 and did not nominate a replacement for 16 months. The leadership gap coincided with broader disruption earlier this spring, when a lengthy federal government shutdown forced 50,000 TSA employees to work without pay for six weeks, causing major airport delays that pushed security wait times to four hours or more.
CNN first reported the change to airport security procedures earlier on Tuesday.