Travelers at three U.S. airports next year may notice changes to security lines as the Transportation Security Administration introduces TSA Gold + — bringing private contractors to check passengers and bags instead of federal officers.

The first three airports to privatize security will be Charleston International Airport in South Carolina, Des Moines International Airport in Iowa and Tampa International Airport in Florida.

The new program would have TSA overseeing private contractors to implement and maintain new technology and run security checkpoints. However, it has faced significant backlash from lawmakers and aviation experts.

“We’re now making security a business. It’s not a business; it’s people’s lives,” Mark Harris, who has been a TSA officer at Tampa’s airport for 10 years, told WFLA.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing TSA agents, denounced the new program and the Trump administration’s push to privatize airport security.

The union’s national president, Everett Kelley, said in a statement that privatizing airport security is a “major departure and step backwards” from the systems Congress enacted following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“The Trump administration’s clear objective is to ultimately privatize all aviation security screening functions, and we don’t have to theorize about what that may look like because we have been through this before and witnessed the devastating and deadly consequences,” Kelley said.

The new program has not yet been implemented in airports, though Tampa International Airport has set a target date for May 2027.

The airport explained why it's opting in to the program on its website, citing the 75-day partial government shutdown earlier this year that left the airport with “callouts every morning and no way of knowing what the day would bring.”

The airport also noted that a passenger survey during the last shutdown ranked it 45th out of 56 airports in TSA screening.

“So what you did is you exposed a federal funding problem. You didn’t expose a security problem,” Harris said in response. “The issue is with the government, not the security. So why are they taking it out on us?”

Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor said a letter to the airport Thursday rejecting their plan, writing, “Tampa airport is one of the best in the world, and we deserve to have top-notch security.”

“I think this is a terrible slap in the face to those security officers that stayed on the job, now are poised to lose their job or lose their commensurate benefits,” she added. The airport has said that it is not eliminating jobs, and that officers have first refusal for positions with the incoming security operator.

The Florida lawmaker also noted the regulations that went into place following Sept. 11, questioning in the letter, “And why would we go back to that situation where you don’t have that professionalized security officer workforce on the front line?”

The airport says the new program isn’t a workaround of the post Sept. 11 security standards, but a provision of it. However, some still aren’t sold on the program.

“Privatization and profit over security should never, ever, ever come first, especially with the 25th anniversary of 9/11 fast approaching,” Harris said.