Unhappy with how the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is fulfilling its security mission at the nation’s airports but unsure of how to reform the agency, a House panel yesterday received testimony on ideas for improving airport security and the TSA’s role.
“Let me start by saying that giving up on TSA without having something better to fill its place is not an option,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security, said at the outset of the hearing. Rogers said that security remains as important now as it did immediately after 9/11 but “letting TSA carry on the way it has for the last 11 years is equally not an option.”
TSA has been battling its poor public perception for years due to passenger delays and inconveniences at airport security checkpoints as well as the screening of people that many believe represent no security threat, such as small children and the elderly.
Rogers applauded TSA’s more recent efforts at risk-based screening, particularly the PreCheck program that enables select frequent fliers and passengers that have been cleared through other Department of Homeland Security trusted traveler programs to have access to a separate screening lane as some checkpoints to receive expedited screening benefits. However, Rogers said TSA isn’t expanding this program quickly enough to cover the large majority of passengers that don’t present a security threat.
Robert Poole, director of Transportation Policy for the Reason Foundation, a conservative think tank, suggested increasing the PreCheck population by including people with security clearances of Secret and higher given the background checks they have gone through. Colby Alonzo a flight attendant and member of the Association of Flight Attendants, said the TSA needs to expand the Known Crewmember expedited screening program currently available to airline pilots to include flight attendants and other people that work in the flight cabin that also go through extensive background checks.
Poole also said that TSA has a conflict of interest in that it is responsible for enforcing security regulations at the nation’s airports while also being responsible for conducting checkpoint and checked baggage security at these facilities. He said that the limited effort to move to private contractor screening, called the Secure Partnership Program, could be improved and eventually provide innovations to airport security, if the TSA had a more limited role in the program.
TSA currently reviews applications from airports that want to opt out of using a federal screening workforce. If the agency approves an application, it is also responsible for hosting the competition among competing contractors as well as a providing the security equipment.
Poole said that the airports should be in charge of choosing the screening contractor from a pool that has been certified by the TSA. He added that if TSA set mission outcomes it would enable the screening contractors to find new ways to meet the missions without having to abide by a one-size-fits-all approach.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), the ranking member on the subcommittee, said she is opposed to changing out federal screeners in favor of private contractors. She added that she is “committed” to the current structure for federal screening.
Tom Blank, a vice president with the public affairs firm Gephardt Government Affairs, and Rick “Ozzie” Nelson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both suggested that the TSA Administrator be appointed for a set term, which would help depoliticize the agency’s connection to a particular administration and at the same time provide institutional stability.
Blank also said that TSA checkpoint supervisors need to be empowered to handle incidents quickly. Training for this can be accomplished now by reprogramming funds, he said.
Rogers said that TSA has said it plans on increasing the authorities of the agency’s checkpoint supervisors but that it has made no concerted effort to implement these plans.
Blank also said that the government needs to find more flexible methods of financing airport security projects such as allowing airports to issue bonds to secure resources more quickly.