- Bipartisan Senate bill aims to restrict TSA's use of facial recognition technology.
- Airlines and TSA lobby against the bill, citing efficiency and safety concerns.
- Sen. Merkley and co-sponsors push for manual ID checks and data restrictions.
SALT LAKE CITY — A bipartisan effort to crack down on facial recognition technology utilized by the Transportation Security Administration is experiencing delays in the Senate amid pushback from airlines citing concerns of efficiency and safety.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the bill earlier this year seeking to implement restrictions for the TSA in how it can operate its biometrics and facial recognition technology in airports, citing concerns about security and government overreach. The bill would establish guardrails requiring most airports to instead use manual ID verification and to delete any images that are taken for facial recognition purposes within 24 hours, among other restrictions.
The bill has garnered bipartisan support since it was introduced in May, with so far two Republican co-sponsors in addition to Merkley, as well as two Democratic co-sponsors.
Other Republicans, even those who have not signed on to the bipartisan bill, have similarly expressed concerns about the TSA in recent years.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, for one, has repeatedly introduced legislation cracking down on the TSA, including a bill earlier this year that would abolish the agency altogether.
"I'm concerned with the abuse of facial recognition technology across the board, including by the TSA," Lee told the Deseret News in a statement. "We need to ensure that law-abiding Americans can go about their lives without constant surveillance by their own government, like in the United Kingdom."
The Senate was set to begin consideration on the proposal last week, but those plans were later canceled by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who leads the Senate Commerce Committee. Reasons for the cancellation were not entirely clear, but it came after intense lobbying efforts by airlines and travel companies to drop the bill altogether.
It also came after apparent lobbying from TSA itself, according to Politico.
"The short answer is yes ... ," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., one of the three Republican co-sponsors of the bill, told the outlet when asked if TSA raised concerns. Kennedy said the TSA is working to kill the bill, "which tells me we're doing the right thing."
But the bill's leaders don't seem convinced to drop the effort just yet. And Cruz told reporters last week the legislation could still be brought up at a later time, at which he said "it's going to pass."
Among some of the proposed changes, the bill would require TSA agents to notify travelers that they can opt out of facial screenings while going through security checkpoints in the airport and instead choose a manual verification option. It would also implement restrictions on what TSA can do with its facial image data.
Senators such as Merkley have pushed for years to crack down on TSA's ability to use its facial recognition technology, which the Oregon Democrat says has grown in recent years to be used in more than 80 airports as of August 2025.
"It's been used to intimidate, to track and to intimidate freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," Merkley said.
