Review – S 1180 Introduced – Abolish TSA Act

Last month Sen Lee (R,UT) introduced S 1180, the Abolish TSA Act of 2025. The bill would required DHS and DOT to establish a plan to “expeditiously eliminate or transfer all authorities, enforcement functions, and programs” of the TSA to the Department of Transportation. It would abolish the TSA three years from the date of enactment of the bill. No new funding is provided.

Moving Forward

Neither Lee, nor his sole cosponsor, Sen Tuberville (R,AL) are members of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there will not be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I suspect that there would be substantial Republican opposition to the bill, so that there would be little chance of passage if it were considered. There would certainly not be 60 votes in the Senate to move the bill forward for consideration.

Commentary

While §5(b)(5) would require the plan to transfer all surface transportation functions of the TSA to the Department of Transportation, it does not specifically address TSA’s responsibilities for security threat assessments for TWIC program, which is more of a Coast Guard (DHS) program rather than DOT surface transportation program. The cavalier, single paragraph treatment of surface transportation security issues is to be expected, as this has always been a bastard step-child of TSA operations, but there should have been language requiring the transfer of the TWIC security assessments to the Coast Guard, not DOT.

 

For more information about the provisions of this bill, including an expanded commentary, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1180-introduced - subscription required.