Trump DHS shutters Obama-era program that surveilled Americans
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has officially ended the Transportation Security Management’s (TSA) Quiet Skies Program, which has been operational as 2012.This program allowed surveillance of airline passengers deemed to present a national security risk. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the program’s termination, highlighting its failure to prevent any terrorist attacks despite costing taxpayers approximately 0 million annually.
Noem accused the program of being misused for political purposes under previous administrations and called for a congressional examination into its activities. She emphasized the need to refocus TSA on its primary mission of ensuring passenger safety and maintaining privacy and equal application of the law. The discontinuation of the program will not considerably impact TSA’s operations,but resources allocated to surveillance will be redirected to essential security duties.
DHS shutters TSA Quiet Skies Program that let government surveil airline passengers
The Trump administration has shuttered a federal government program that spanned four administrations and allowed homeland security officials to surveil airline passengers.
Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem announced Thursday afternoon that it had ended the Transportation Security Administration’s Quiet Skies Program, which was put in place in 2012 to gather intelligence on passengers who presented a national security concern. Noem also called on Congress to investigate how the program was used by administrations, possibly to track people for political reasons.
“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration — weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends,” Noem said in a statement. “I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security.”
Today, I’m announcing TSA is ending the Quiet Skies Program, which since its existence has failed to stop a SINGLE terrorist attack while costing US taxpayers roughly $200 million a year.
DHS and TSA have uncovered documents, correspondence, and timelines that clearly… pic.twitter.com/mcdNplUuVV
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) June 5, 2025
A number of Senate and House Republicans have called attention to the Quiet Skies program and how people of all nationalities are swept up in it without cause, including by the Biden administration.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) exposed in May that the TSA tracked Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, during the 2024 election for unspecified reasons that Republicans have said boiled down to politics.
DHS alleged on Wednesday that Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) contacted TSA about her husband, William “Billy” Shaheen, being subjected to enhanced screening. The department claimed that the senator personally lobbied former TSA Administrator David Pekoske to give her husband a blanket exemption from the program.
The Quiet Skies Program costs U.S. taxpayers roughly $200 million per year.
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TSA, as an agency, will largely go unaffected by Noem’s shuttering of the program, but personnel such as air marshals who were pulled to follow passengers onto flights and through airports will be redirected to their normal tasks.
“TSA’s critical aviation and security vetting functions will be maintained, and the Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public,” said Noem. “This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans.”
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