DOT's Mineta Asks Congress For Wiggle Room

U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Norman Mineta expressed some frustration at the current atmosphere in Congress, in which a number of lawmakers have criticized the pace of the Transportation Security Administration's implementation, as well as the agency's request for additional funds.

In an exclusive interview May 7 with Business Travel News, Mineta noted that the Aviation and Transportation Security Act is "very prescribed" on the setup of TSA and the deployment of a federal screener workforce at the nation's commercial service airports. "It's like tattooed on my forehead: Nov. 19, 2002, all passenger screening will be done by federal employees. Dec. 31, 2002, all the bags will be checked by explosives detection systems," he said. "My forehead's full, so when I'm shaving, I'm going, 'yeah, yeah, yeah.' The problem is now we've geared everything to that, now they're saying, 'Well, no, you're not going to get 51,632 people, you're going to get 45,000.' "

"Does it mean we're not going to do 100 percent bag check?" Mineta questioned. "Are we going to check every third passenger? How are we going to shoehorn in our requirements under the law with what we have now been given in dollars?"

Mineta said he would be speaking on May 7 with House transportation appropriations subcommittee chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and others "about what is expected of us." He said he would ask key lawmakers to "give us a little wiggle room to gear up because we sure as heck aren't overspending on this thing. Give us a little wiggle room to get everything in place and then come back and do oversight on this. That's the normal process. In this instance, it's a brand new program. Give us a little leeway to be able to get the job done and whack the heck out of us if we don't do the job at the end of this year."