"US Transportation Security Agency Imposes Hiring Freeze"

Thursday, September 26, 2002                         

US Transportation Security Agency Imposes Hiring Freeze
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP)--The Transportation Security Administration has imposed
a hiring freeze in the midst of its effort to meet fast-approaching
congressionally imposed deadlines to check all passengers and baggage at
commercial airports.

Congress capped TSA at 45,000 full-time employees when it created the
agency in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. The agency will have close
to that number by this weekend, when a new batch of screeners comes on
board, TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said Thursday.

TSA chief James Loy imposed the freeze Wednesday night.

"It's premature to say whether we will or will not be able to meet our
deadlines," Johnson said. "We're going to keep working with Congress."

The TSA has said it would need up to 67,000 employees, a figure that
House Republicans, in particular, have said is too high.

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations
transportation subcommittee, harshly criticized the TSA at a hearing of
the full committee Thursday.

"They are growing too fast into a huge bureaucracy," he said. "We have
reviewed TSA's staffing estimates and concluded that they can do the job
with 45,000 full-time federal employees."

The TSA has asked Congress for $5.4 billion next year, but Rogers said
House Republicans want to trim that by $200 million and rearrange
spending. The GOP plan calls for more to be spent on such things as
airport modifications to accommodate bomb-detection machines and to
speed up installation of stronger cockpit doors -and less on staffing.

Congress gave TSA until Nov. 19 to take over the responsibility of
screening passengers from private companies, an effort the agency says
will take about 30,000 people.

The TSA also was given a Dec. 31 deadline to hire people to screen all
commercial air travelers' baggage for explosives. That will require an
estimated 21,600 people, according to TSA.

George Naccara, TSA's security director at Logan International Airport,
said he still needs to hire 300 to 400 more passenger screeners to meet
the deadline. If the hiring freeze lasts more than a week or 10 days,
"it could become a problem for us," he said.

The government's fiscal year ends Monday. Congress is expected to pass a
bill keeping agencies open for the first week of the fiscal year by
extending previous budget authorizations.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************