TSA To Shuffle Nation's Airport Screeners

The U.S. government will reallocate its 45,000 passenger and baggage screeners among some of the nation's airports to more accurately reflect changing commercial air traffic patterns, according to a report issued this week by the Transportation Security Administration.

"There are some airports that we believe are overstaffed and some we believe are understaffed," Tom Blank, acting deputy administrator of TSA, reportedly told the House Homeland Security subcommittee on economic security, infrastructure protection and cyber security.

While some modifications to screener workforces will be slight, such as the removal of six screeners from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, other airports will be harder hit.

According to the TSA report, Portland International Airport in Oregon will lose 168 screeners, roughly one-third of its 509-screener workforce. New York's Kennedy International Airport will lose nearly 10 percent, or 162 members, of its 1,844-screener staff, while the number of screeners at New York's LaGuardia Airport will increase 10 percent upon the addition of 76 screeners. McCarran Airport in Las Vegas and Los Angeles International airport also will increase their staffing, by 247 and 120 screeners respectively.