Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

5. Department of Homeland Security · Notable

Deunionize the TSA workforce immediately

Blocked

159 5. Department of Homeland Security

“Until it is privatized, TSA should be treated as a national security provider, and its workforce should be deunionized immediately.”

What has happened

  1. Blocked

    The department tried a second time and is still stopped. Secretary Noem issued a second determination on 2025-09-29, "Eliminating Collective Bargaining at TSA Due to its Incompatibility with TSA's National Security Mission", purporting to rescind all prior determinations, terminate the 2024 agreement, cancel dues deductions and all pending grievances and arbitrations, and provide that screening officers "shall not have the right to elect an exclusive representative for the purpose of collective bargaining or for any other purpose". The court held on 2026-01-15 that the injunction already reached it, because the second prong "prohibits the denial of CBA rights regardless of the vehicle used to accomplish that denial", and on 2026-07-28 denied the government's motion to dismiss the case as moot and to dissolve the injunction, which "remains in full force unless and until it is modified, dissolved, or stayed".

  2. Blocked

    Enjoined eleven weeks after it took effect. Judge Pechman preliminarily enjoined DHS from giving effect to the Noem Determination's rescission of the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, from denying Plaintiffs, their members and all bargaining-unit Transportation Security Officers any right or working condition the agreement guarantees, and from terminating grievances and arbitrations brought under it. The agreement covers nearly 26,000 officers. The government did not appeal and did not move for reconsideration.

  3. Done

    DHS announced on 2025-03-07 that it was ending collective bargaining for TSA's Transportation Security Officers, canceling the collective bargaining agreement outright. TSA screeners bargain under the Administrator's discretionary determination in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act rather than under 5 U.S.C. chapter 71, so no executive order was needed and none was used: the Secretary simply withdrew the determination. That is the ask -- the workforce the Quote names was deunionized, and immediately.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

The instrument is not an executive order. TSA screener bargaining rights rest on a determination by the TSA Administrator under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which the Secretary withdrew; the department announced it the same day.

  • The docket was read in full on 2026-09-02: American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO v. Noem, W.D. Wash. 2:25-cv-00451 (filed 2025-03-13), https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69733614/american-federation-of-government-employees-afl-cio-v-noem/ . The preliminary injunction (Dkt 39), the clarifying order (Dkt 73) and the denial of dissolution (Dkt 87) are free RECAP PDFs and are the Evidence above. No appeal was ever taken — there is no notice of appeal on the docket and no Ninth Circuit case for it, so nothing has stayed the injunction. The case is live: an amended complaint was filed 2026-07-13 and the administrative record for the September determination is due 2026-09-04.
  • The second determination of 2025-09-29 was never announced. DHS’s sitemap was read in full (14 sub-maps) on 2026-09-02: its news list carries the March 7 release above and nothing on TSA collective bargaining for September 2025. The determination is quoted in the court’s orders (Dkt 73, Dkt 87) and appears in no allowlisted source outside the litigation record, so the orders are the Primary evidence of what it says.
  • Distinct from #413, which is about the executive order route under 5 U.S.C. 7103 for the rest of DHS, and from #276 (privatize TSA), which is unmoved.
Action
eliminate
Object
TSA workforce unions
ID
410