By Calvin Biesecker
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have approved spending bills for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would add funding for the air cargo security account, including additional investment in various technologies that would improve the ability to screen the cargo for explosives, according to reports from both panels.
The Senate version of the FY ’10 DHS Appropriations Bill provides $10 million for the Explosives Division within the Science and Technology Directorate to develop air cargo screening technologies. The House bill includes $5 million within the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) component of the budget specifically for the “testing, evaluation, and qualification of emerging screening technologies to screen larger sized items for inclusion on TSA’s Qualified Technology List (QPL).”
TSA’s existing QPL for air cargo screening includes screening technologies currently deployed at airports to scan checked and carry-on bags for explosives. The list also includes two X-ray systems that can screen palletized cargo, which is what the House language is referring to. But officials in the freight forwarding industry who will be using the equipment believe better systems are needed.
TSA is mandated by Congress to ensure that 100 percent of all cargo loaded onto passenger planes be screened for explosives by August 2010. Earlier this year, the agency met the 50 percent, mandate although at the time it couldn’t verify that (Defense Daily, March 20). To meet the 100 percent mandate, TSA is certifying freight forwarders, manufacturers and other entities in the supply chain to do the screening. However, many of these forwarders want TSA to qualify more types of explosives detection systems than are currently on the QPL to meet the diverse array of commodities they handle.
For example, the Senate bill points to TSA’s efforts to help the fresh fruit industry meet the screening requirements and tells the agency to expedite its efforts to develop and approve effective cargo screening technology.
The Senate bill provides $115 million for the air cargo initiative, a $6.9 million increase to the DHS request. The increase will permit the hiring of 50 additional air cargo inspectors to help TSA comply with the regulations, including verifying that cargo is indeed being screened.
The Senate cites estimates that there will have to be between 8,000 and 15,000 entities participating in the Certified Cargo Screening Program, as the air cargo program is called. So far, TSA has certified nearly 400 cargo screening facilities.
The House bill provides $122.8 million for the air cargo program, a $14.7 million increase from the request that would also fund additional inspectors, for both domestic and international deployments, put more effort on the global air cargo security regime, continue existing air cargo screening pilots “using emerging technologies that are being developed to screen larger sized items,” and convert 35 canine teams from law enforcement to TSA needs.
The two bills also address TSA’s use of whole body imaging (WBI) systems that are being tested at airport checkpoints to screen passengers in both primary and secondary applications to check for concealed weapons and explosives. The systems are controversial because they show explicit detail of body parts beneath a person’s clothing.
Despite the controversy, TSA reports that in the pilot tests a majority of passengers choose the WBI systems over a pat down search. Both the Senate and House want TSA to report to them on how the agency is ensuring that individual privacy is being protected when the WBI systems are used. The report language from both committees is very similar, although the House wants to see a spending plan for how new algorithms are being developed to protect individual privacy.
In using the WBI systems, which are supplied by L-3 Communications [LLL] and are based on active millimeter wave technology, TSA screeners view the images of passengers remotely so they can’t physically witness who has been screened. The agency says the screened images can’t be stored, transferred or printed. The operator at the machine never sees the images.