It’s clearer now than ever. We need to privatize TSA.

We’ve all seen the clips that have gone viral of Transportation Security Administration lines at airports stretching into baggage claims and parking decks, with some airline passengers having to wait hours just to get through security. The result is missed flights. 

This is all completely avoidable. The TSA’s funding has once again been caught in the crossfire of partisan differences on funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with a partial government shutdown ongoing. We shouldn’t even be in this mess in the first place, because airport screening should not be performed by the government. 

There is no good reason why the TSA hasn’t been privatized. The agency is an inefficient, bureaucratic mess and has its funding subject to the whims of political fights extraneous to its mission. Privatization would both make the agency function better and insulate it from political fights.