by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:45 AM ET, Mon November 24, 2025
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem teased a $1 billion plan to modernize the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) equipment across the nation at an event praising select TSA officers who didn’t take time off during the 43-day government shutdown, which ended earlier this month.
The announcement was made at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, where she also announced that every TSA officer who didn’t take time off during the government shutdown would be awarded a $10,000 bonus in the style of Transportation Secretary Duffy’s recent bonus for air traffic control officers with perfect attendance.
The DOT awarded 776 of the some 14,000 air traffic controllers with $10,000 bonuses.
According to FOX, the upgrades would fund new technology and “advancements in security systems,” though there has not been any formalized plan published online—or a note on how the upgrades will be funded.
"We will be putting over $1 billion into new scanning equipment, new X-ray equipment, [Advanced Imaging Technology] equipment," said Noem during her speech. "… It's been over a decade, maybe 15 years, since the department has put this kind of resources into new technologies to keep our transportation system secure, so that will be coming and being deployed over the next many months.”
Last week, the TSA announced it was floating the idea of paying for a new biometric scanning system for airport security checkpoints by charging everyone who uses it and doesn’t have a REAL ID or other valid form of identification $18 for a ten-day travel period—that plan is currently under a public commenting period in the Federal Register.
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