YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityYour ticket fee wouldn't change — but $750 million a year of it would go to airport security from 2028.
Your Money
Air travelers pay a security fee on each ticket, $5.60 each way today. The first $250 million of it goes to airport security projects now; from fiscal year 2028 that would be $750 million, split between two funds.
Corporate Benefits
The bill creates a new fund that gets $250 million a year from ticket fees. The money pays to test, buy, install, and maintain screening equipment at airport checkpoints.
Transparency & Accountability
Today at least $200 million must go to projects the TSA already promised, and up to $50 million to grants that favor small and rural airports. The bill drops both set amounts and lets the TSA decide.
The rule that sends fee money to this fund ends after fiscal year 2028. The bill drops that end date, so the money would keep coming each year with no new vote.
More about this bill
If you fly, the fee on your ticket would not change. Today that fee is $5.60 each way. What changes is where the money goes. Starting in fiscal year 2028, the first $500 million a year would go to a fund for airport security projects. That fund gets $250 million a year today. The next $250 million would go to a new fund for checkpoint screening equipment. Fiscal year 2028 starts in October 2027. The bill also drops two rules about how the airport security money is split. One rule set aside at least $200 million for projects the TSA had already promised to fund. Another sent up to $50 million to grants that gave priority to small and rural airports. The TSA would decide how to split the money instead. Congress also states in the bill that this fee should pay for nothing but aviation security. That statement is an opinion, not a rule.
Congressional Summary
Spending Aviation Fees for Equipment, Guaranteeing Upgraded and Advanced Risk Detection and Safety Act of 2026 or the SAFEGUARDS Act of 2026This bill allocates additional funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for aviation security, including checked baggage explosives detection equipment and security checkpoint technology.As background, TSA collects passenger civil aviation security service fees (often referred to as the 9/11 security fee or passenger security fee) on air carrier passengers originating at airports in the United States. In general, these fees are deposited into the Department of the Treasury general fund and applied towards debt reduction. A portion of these fees are allocated to TSA for aviation security.The bill requires that the first $500 million collected in each fiscal year from passenger security fees be deposited into the Aviation Security Capital Fund. This is an increase from the currently required $250 million. This fund provides for the costs associated with acquiring and installing in-line baggage screening systems (i.e., systems that use a conveyor belt infrastructure to automatically screen, sort, and track baggage) to accommodate checked baggage explosives detection equipment and for certain other airport security improvements.The bill also requires that the next $250 million collected in each fiscal year from passenger security fees be deposited into a new Aviation Security Checkpoint Technology Fund for the costs associated with acquiring, installing, and sustaining aviation security checkpoint technology.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-05-12
- Date Added
- 2026-07-10
- Source
- Congress.gov →
Like reading a bill in plain English?
We're building an app that does this for every bill in Congress and lets you tell your reps how you want them to vote. We're a small team getting ready to launch, and we're trying to show investors that real people want this. Be one of them. Help us get it built. Leave your email and we'll tell you the moment the app is ready.