Trump’s nomination on Monday puts David Cummins forward to lead the Transportation Security Administration after the agency endured what the Trump administration and TSA employees described as a severe stretch tied to the federal funding crisis. The move comes as the TSA continues under acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill following the end of a prolonged partial government shutdown that ended late last month, a period in which employees went without pay and airport security operations were strained.
In the months leading up to the shutdown’s end, TSA employees reportedly faced prolonged uncertainty, and the disruptions carried through to passenger experience at airports nationwide. During the shutdown, the TSA saw staffing problems that contributed to longer security lines and delays, according to the Associated Press report, which said travelers were frustrated over missed flights and that politicians exchanged blame over who was responsible for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security.
Cummins is a former senior vice president at Serco, a government contractor that works with local and federal agencies, the AP reported. The nomination also positions Cummins to take over an agency that has been bruised by the shutdown’s fallout, including the impact on employee attendance and retention during the period when TSA personnel did not receive paychecks.
The AP report described Cummins as having experience in transportation through his Serco work and noted that his profile on LinkedIn previously listed accomplishments in areas including transportation systems. That account also said Cummins was director of operations for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, according to the report, and it included a claim about being co-awarded “a dozen patents in transportation systems,” though the report said the profile “appears to have been taken down.”
The nomination comes with questions about how TSA leadership will address operational stability after the shutdown. The AP said that during the funding lapse, thousands of TSA employees did not show up to work and hundreds quit entirely, leaving airport security systems to absorb the staffing disruptions as travelers tried to travel.
A Serco spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment from Cummins, the AP reported.