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\n

House Republican appropriators are taking aim at TSA\u2019s new $45 fee for air travelers who don\u2019t have a REAL ID or other accepted form of identification, inserting language into their annual Homeland Security spending bill seeking to stop its collection.<\/p>\n

The fiscal 2027 legislation, which is poised for an Appropriations Committee markup Tuesday, includes a prohibition on TSA charging or collecting any fee for \u201ca program vetting travelers arriving without acceptable identification for admission through security screenings at airports.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an accompanying report<\/a> released Monday offering details about the bill, the House GOP said there\u2019s \u201cno valid statutory authority for TSA to collect\u201d the new fee, known as ConfirmID, which launched in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, identity verification was a function that TSA performed for free when passengers were unable to present acceptable IDs, which frequently happens after natural disasters or personal property theft,\u201d the report says. \u201cConfirmID is over an order of magnitude more expensive than the system it replaced on a per passenger basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would require a TSA congressional briefing on the program.<\/p>\n

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its fee collection process. The agency had initially proposed an $18 fee.<\/p>\n

Adam Stahl, TSA\u2019s acting deputy administrator, said in a December announcement<\/a>: \u201cThe vast majority of travelers present acceptable identification like REAL IDs and passports, but we must ensure everyone who flies is who they say they are,\u201d adding: \u201cThis fee ensures the cost to cover verification of an insufficient ID will come from the traveler, not the taxpayer.\u201d The agency said at the time that more than 94 percent of passengers have REAL ID or other acceptable forms of identification.<\/p>\n

Separately, Republican appropriators note in the report that TSA would be required to conduct an agency-wide review to \u201cidentify spending reductions and savings achievable through expanded use of public-private partnerships.\u201d In doing so, the agency, among other things, would need to consider \u201cincreasing the use of private sector security screening and remote screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s far from what the Trump administration was seeking: mandating the Screening Partnership Program, or SPP, at smaller airports. Through the program, private companies staff security checkpoints under TSA oversight.<\/p>\n

By the numbers: <\/b>The House GOP wants to give TSA $11.2 billion total in discretionary spending \u2014 a $347 million cut year-over-year. (This amount would be offset by $3.6 billion in revenue from the 9\/11 passenger fee and vetting fees, like for PreCheck.)<\/p>\n

Additionally, TSA would receive $255.3 million in mandatory spending, which is similar to what it got in fiscal 2026.<\/p>\n

The bill would boost the SPP, with an increase of $41 million for the program year-over-year.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Republicans aim to reduce spending on screening personnel, compensation and benefits by $32.9 million compared to fiscal 2026.<\/p>\n

Screening technology maintenance would experience an increase, meanwhile, of $192 million.<\/p>\n

Federal Air Marshals would see a year-over-year reduction of $290.4 million.<\/p>\n

In the committee report, when listing vetting fees, the House GOP doesn\u2019t account for any dollars from ConfirmID \u2014 illustrating how they want to stop it from being imposed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Republican appropriators are taking aim at TSA\u2019s new $45 fee for air travelers who don\u2019t have a REAL ID or other accepted form of identification, inserting language into their annual Homeland Security spending bill seeking to stop its collection. The fiscal 2027 legislation, which is poised for an Appropriations Committee markup Tuesday, includes a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}