Sponsors (35)
The bill extends Title 5 protections, pay safeguards, and greater oversight to TSA and related security personnel—strengthening job protections and likely improving recruitment/retention—at the cost of higher federal personnel expenses, added administrative burdens, and reduced managerial flexibility that could complicate agile security operations.
TSA screening personnel and Federal air marshals (transportation-workers, federal employees) gain Title 5 protections, formal collective-bargaining and grievance rights, preserved pay/benefits, and clearer pay calculations, improving job security and workplace protections.
TSA and air marshal workforce stability and recruitment are likely to improve because preserved pay/creditable service, clearer pay rules, and formal workplace protections make hiring and retention easier.
Congress, GAO, and agencies will get regular, clearer oversight data (annual workforce reports, briefings on assaults/threats, GAO reviews, and a plan for background‑check harmonization), increasing transparency and enabling targeted policy responses.
Taxpayers and the federal budget face increased costs because the bill preserves premium pay/benefits, may raise overtime and payroll liabilities, and includes an open-ended authorization of “such sums as may be necessary.”
TSA management and operational flexibility could be reduced as Title 5 procedures, national bargaining, and statutory definitions limit the agency's ability to set rapid, tailored HR and scheduling rules needed for agile security operations.
The bill creates substantial administrative and implementation burdens (conversion plans, multiple reports, briefings, GAO reviews, harmonization planning) that will consume staff time and agency resources, risking short‑term distractions from operations.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Moves covered TSA employees into Title 5 civil service, preserves pay/premiums, establishes Title 5 collective bargaining, and requires transition reports and GAO reviews.
Official title: Enhance the security operations of the Transportation Security Administration and stability of the transportation security workforce by applying the personnel system under title 5, United States Code, to employees of the Transportation Security Administration, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 12, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress March 12, 2025
Converts most Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees — including screening agents and Federal Air Marshals — from TSA-specific personnel systems into Title 5 federal civil service protections, pay and retirement rules. It freezes existing TSA personnel systems on enactment, requires transition safeguards (no cuts to basic pay or key premiums), preserves collective bargaining rights under Title 5, and sets deadlines and agency/GAO reporting and briefings to Congress about workforce morale, assaults on agents, recruitment, retention, and implementation of the conversion (with a hard conversion deadline no later than December 31, 2025). The bill also requires consultation with employee representatives, establishes transition pay/retirement rules, directs OPM and payroll system updates, and funds implementation with unspecified appropriations.