Every officer knows how a bid works. TSA has now written down how it wants software to run one.
On October 13, TSA posted a notice inviting companies to an Industry Day at its Springfield headquarters for two Horizon 25 programs, OrchestrateSI and TalentSI. On October 20, the day of the event, it attached a draft Statement of Objectives for each program along with an IT governance document. The notice had said the drafts would be posted before the event. These are the documents vendors will write their proposals to.
What TSA Says Is Broken
The OrchestrateSI draft opens with the problem as TSA sees it. More than 70 decentralized scheduling offices, it says, "manually coordinate tens of thousands of Transportation Security Officers using disparate legacy systems and static bidding procedures, which limits frontline agility, inflates overtime costs, and complicates labor-policy compliance."
The stated aim is to unify demand forecasting, checkpoint sensors, and "automated personnel scheduling" into one framework, "lowering costs, maintaining passenger wait times at or below target thresholds, enhancing accountability, and reinforcing national security screening standards." The draft does not define accountability.
The Bidding Engine
The first workstream calls for "an automated bidding engine supporting leave bidding, seniority-based shift bidding, shift trades, call-outs, and split shifts up to 14 months in advance." It calls for predictive scheduling built on historical throughput, seasonal patterns, and real-time flight data, and for a "what-if" simulator that lets leadership model "lane configurations, equipment availability, and budget constraints." The system would automatically track "Paid Not Worked (PNW), Overtime (OT), FTE burn rates, training, and certifications," and exchange data with TSA's human capital, payroll, and credentialing systems.
Three of its measures of success land directly on officers: a "measurable reduction in non-emergency overtime hours," the "elimination of manual scheduling tools across 70+ offices," and a defined confidence interval "between forecasted and realized staffing needs."
The draft keeps seniority in shift bidding, and it states that "workforce optimization and leave/shift-bidding rules must strictly adhere to the TSA Collective Bargaining Agreement and applicable DHS human capital directives."
Sensors Across the Checkpoint
The second workstream places "non-invasive, privacy-compliant sensors across the full checkpoint footprint." The draft names queue entry, credential authentication lanes, divestiture, "on-person screening (WTMD, AIT, pat-down)," additional screening and alarm resolution, ADA gates, and recomposure. Computer vision would identify "flow anomalies and lane imbalance in real time," predict blockages before they form, and send "role-based digital alerts to checkpoint supervisors for proactive lane adjustments." Where an airport's camera feeds are "unavailable, proprietary, or legally restricted," TSA would install standalone sensors of its own.
The draft states that "No PII, facial recognition templates, or persistent device tracking may be captured," and that TSA will retain "full, unencumbered ownership of all raw telemetry, derived datasets, schedules, and logs." It does not say whether data from the pat-down and alarm resolution areas, where officers perform their work, will be read at the level of a lane, a shift, or a position.
For supervisors, the draft describes a change in the job. It says frontline supervisors "currently rely on manual, reactive observation to spot queue surges." Under this system, the alert comes first.
Twelve Months to Every Airport
The draft schedules delivery "across five phases over 12 months." Phase III includes "formal workforce operational assessments across five TSA-designated airports." Phase V "achieves nationwide rollout across all TSA airports." The acquisition section of the same document describes those assessments at "4 TSA-designated airports." Neither passage names an airport.
The path to those airports is short. Vendors submit a white paper of no more than five pages, with graphics not considered, and TSA evaluates after two weeks. The vendors who remain build a working demonstration in six weeks. Three months of operational assessments at the designated airports follow, and only then a production award and nationwide rollout. The governance document requires the demonstration environment to be paid for entirely by the vendor, with the government carrying "ZERO financial liability."
Officers at the assessment airports would work alongside these systems before any contract is awarded.
What the Administrator Has Already Said
The Administrator described this system to airport executives on October 6. He said the wait time data would feed "our workforce management software that's going to decide how many TSOs need to be at that checkpoint, and then also when do we stand up a new lane." He said a modernized lane does not need "two people checking driver's license" and that TSA is "not going to backfill all of these positions" lost to attrition. TSA's budget request states that advances in screening technology and process improvements have let the agency "maintain security standards with a smaller workforce."
For what that staffing reduction reaches, see Which Positions Go First.
Hiring, Too
The TalentSI draft covers hiring for officers, Federal Air Marshals, and management, administrative, and professional positions. It would track candidates alongside USA Staffing through medical, drug screening, background, and interview milestones, and apply business rules that include "automated involuntary withdrawals" of non-responsive candidates. It would summarize resumes against job criteria, with outputs that "support, rather than replace, human review and final decision-making." Its scope reaches past hiring to "employees" and to "certification, continuing standards, and career development."
What SI Stands For
Both program names end in SI. The governance document attached to the notice spells it out as "Super Intelligence (SI)." It requires vendors to conduct "a mandatory pre-acquisition evaluation" of whether their capability is a "rights-impacting" or "safety-impacting" application, and if it is, to put in place "external civil rights reviews, bias benchmarks, and automated human-in-the-loop fallback mechanisms." The document does not say how TSA classifies a system that schedules its officers and screens its applicants.
What to Do Now
Keep your own record of your shift bids, leave requests, trades, and approvals under the process you work today. If your airport is chosen for an assessment, that record is how you show what changed and when. Supervisors should note how lane decisions are made now, because the draft is written to change how they are made.
What We Are Asking
Which airports will host the assessments, and will officers there be told before they begin? Who will write the bidding rules the engine applies, and will anyone representing officers review them before they run? Has TSA classified either system as rights-impacting? What does "enhancing accountability" mean for an individual officer?
TSA has said it does not intend to answer questions submitted through the Industry Day directly. These questions are for TSA and for the committees that oversee it.
Sources: TSA Industry Day Notice TSAHorizon25_OSI-TSI_FY2027 on SAM.gov and its attachments, DRAFT SOO OrchestrateSI, DRAFT SOO TalentSI, and Comprehensive IT Governance Document for Acquisition V2.1; the Administrator's keynote at the ACI-NA Public Safety and Security Conference, October 6, 2026; TSA FY2027 Congressional Justification.
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