By Calvin Biesecker
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is confident that it is meeting the 50 percent requirement that all cargo carried on passenger planes departing from the nation’s airports is being screened for explosives based on discussions with the parties responsible for the screening, although hard data is still being received from the airlines and won’t be analyzed until next month, an agency official told Congress on Wednesday.
“Our confidence is based on numerous discussions with regulated parties and industry associations, coupled with the historically solid record of compliance with TSA security programs industry-wide,” Ed Kelly, general manager, Air Cargo, for TSA’s Transportation Sector Network Management, told a House Homeland Security Committee panel.
However, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), TSA can’t verify that it is meeting the 50 percent mandate until its data reporting system is in place and the data is being analyzed.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), chairman of the House panel on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection, said that not having verified the initial screening mandate has been met is a concern, although she acknowledged that progress is being made.
The 50 percent screening mandate went into effect early last month and by Aug. 3, 2010 100 percent of all air cargo being carried on passenger flights originating in the United States are supposed to be screened for explosives. Kelly said TSA expects to meet next year’s deadline.
Before the congressionally-imposed air cargo screening mandate, TSA already required airlines, which are also known as air carriers, to screen a certain percentage of cargo before it was loaded on their planes. However, to meet the 50 percent and ultimately the 100 percent mandates, TSA realized that it would have to expand screening requirements throughout the supply chain.
To do this, last December TSA began certifying facilities of freight forwarders who deliver cargo from manufacturers to the airlines as Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (CCSFs). The agency is also certifying manufacturers, known as shippers, to be CCSFs as well as some third party screeners, which are called Independent Cargo Screening Facilities (ICSFs). Participation as a certified screener is voluntary but is critical to meeting the 100 percent mandate.
Stephen Lord, director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues at GAO, told the panel that there is no guarantee TSA will secure enough voluntary participants in the Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP). He also pointed to the fact that many of the freight forwarders and shippers are concerned about program costs, which are largely falling on their shoulders except for an ongoing pilot program in which TSA is funding some equipment purchases and leaving the maintenance costs to the participants.
Indeed, a panel of industry officials, largely representatives of air cargo freight forwarders and U.S. airlines, told the House panel later Wednesday that there needs to either be some funding to help CCSFs purchase equipment or tax credits to make it easier for them to afford the screening systems.
Currently, TSA has over 225 CCSFs in its program, the bulk of those freight forwarders, with the rest split between shippers and ICSFs.
To screen cargo for explosives, TSA permits the use of technology that is currently being used to screen checked and carry-on baggage at airports. This includes explosive detection systems, Advanced Technology X-Ray systems and explosive trace detectors. General Electric [GE], L-3 Communications [LLL], OSI Systems [OSIS], Reveal Imaging Technologies, and Britain’s Smiths Detection all supply TSA-certified screening equipment to U.S. airports.
TSA also screens some cargo with its canine teams. Physical inspections are allowed as well.
However, the current explosives detection equipment used at airports was never intended to screen cargo, which can come in all sizes. Moreover, some cargo is shipped in pallets or at least delivered to airlines in pallets without being screened, which necessitates having to break it down to the package level for piece screening.
TSA, with the help of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology branch, is working to test other technologies such as enhanced metal detectors, vapor trace detectors, radio wave devices, and handheld explosive trace detectors, for screening air cargo, Kelly said. That’s because the current airport screening technologies will not work efficiently for many cargo types of cargo.
Kelly said that American Airlines [AMR] has agreed to allow S&T to set up test sites at two of its cargo facilities to test some of the new technologies.
TSA is also beginning to examine pallet screening technology, although assessments are not expected to be completed until after the August 2010 deadline, GAO’s Lord said.
Lord also said that TSA doesn’t plan to certify any of the current airport screening technology for use in the air cargo environment until after next August, which is a concern to the airlines, freight forwarders, shippers and ICSFs that are now purchasing that equipment and who don’t want to lose their investment.
Pallet screening technology that is certified by TSA is considered important by the industry officials to achieve the 100 percent screening solution.
“We are quite concerned that much of the equipment currently certified for use is most appropriate for the passenger screening environment and is ill-suited to the air cargo environment where palletized or other consolidated shipments are the norm,” Jack Boisen, chairman of the International Air Cargo Association, said in his prepared remarks. “We believe TSA should expedite its review of technologies geared towards the air cargo environment.”
Kelly said that TSA is also qualifying more of its explosive detection canine teams for use in screening air cargo and is exploring the use of proprietary canine teams in the CCSP program. All the industry officials agreed that more canine teams need to be funded, in particular to help screen palletized cargo.
Congress has also mandated that TSA ensure that 100 percent of all air cargo on passenger planes coming into the U.S. from foreign countries be screened for explosives by next August. However, Kelly said this deadline is unlikely to be met due to the complexities in dealing with foreign governments, the difficulties some foreign airports have in accommodating screening equipment due to space limitations, and the number of cargo handlers and distributors. Still, TSA is working with foreign governments toward meeting this mandate and is also looking at a risk-based management system used by Customs and Border Protection, called the Automated Targeting System, to assess risk on inbound freight.
“We are proposing an enhancement to the system to perform an evaluation of risk for explosives in cargo shipments,” Kelly said. “If we find that this is an effective tool, we will work with CBP to have the information supplied early enough to assure that evaluations could be done prior to a flight’s departure.”