WashingtonWire - 2004-06-07

TSA Looks To Boost Airport Screeners

The Transportation Security Administration is scrambling to hire passenger screeners at U.S. airports as lawmakers warn of long delays at airport checkpoints this summer. The Air Transport Association is projecting 65 million passengers per month will fly on U.S. airlines this summer, making it the busiest summer season for airlines since before the 2001 terror attacks. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House transportation subcommittee on aviation, said the government must strike the right balance between avoiding delays and ensuring security. "Airline travel is rapidly returning to the airport congestion and crowded airways of 2001," Mica said. "While more passengers and more flights are healthy signs that the airline industry is regaining strength, they also signal more air traffic delays, longer security lines, more inconvenience and more passenger frustration."

Stephen McHale, TSA deputy administrator, and Marion Blakey, Federal Aviation Administration administrator, pledged both agencies are taking steps to keep things running smoothly and safely. That includes the addition of 59 new checkpoint screeners and four additional lines at Atlanta Hartsfield, as well as similar staff increases at other airports. "We are taking immediate and direct steps to avert a repeat of past delay-riddled summers," Blakey said. "Our plan contemplates the myriad of factors—some well beyond our control—that contribute to system delays, including weather, security, airline operations, air traffic control, airports, infrastructure and equipment. We are confident that this approach will provide effective inroads to manage the surge in traffic that will coincide with the busy travel season."

Mica Seeks Biometric Tech to Boost Security

House transportation subcommittee on aviation chairman John Mica also is urging "immediate" implementation of new biometric technologies, such as fingerprinting, to combat forged or stolen credentials and badges that terrorists might use to gain access to sensitive areas at U.S. airports. Mica complained at a congressional hearing this month that billions of taxpayer dollars spent on increased passenger and baggage screening are wasted if imposters posing as law enforcement officials or airport personnel can bypass security checkpoints. "Unfortunately, we currently have a hodgepodge of airport security credentials and access-control systems at our nation's airports," Mica said. "Our multibillion-dollar screening regime is defenseless against a terrorist who uses a lost, stolen or forged security badge or law enforcement officer credential to walk right past a screening checkpoint."

Federal law enforcement officers are allowed to fly on commercial planes with their weapons if they have the proper credentials and paperwork. Employees of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, created fake badges using commercially available software downloaded from the Internet to pose as law enforcement officers and bypass security at two commercial airports. The agents were successful every time they tried to bypass security with the fake credentials. Mica said he realizes biometric technology isn't foolproof and more studies need to be done, but added that implementing such technologies in the meantime would be an improvement over current procedures.

Pilots Union Endorses Kerry For U.S. Prez

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 64,000 pilots working for 42 airlines in the United States and Canada, endorsed Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for U.S. president. Capt. Duane Woerth, ALPA president, criticized what he said was the Bush administration's anti-union policies, such as allowing troubled airlines to declare bankruptcy and threatening actions to prevent pilots from striking.