"U.S. to thin airport screener ranks by 3,000"

Friday, March 28, 2003

U.S. to thin airport screener ranks by 3,000
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON -- As many as 3,000 airport screeners could lose their jobs this
spring as the government reassesses the size of the work force that it
brought to full strength only last November.

The head of the Transportation Security Administration, James Loy, told a
House Appropriations subcommittee that he wants to reduce the number of
screeners from 54,000 to 51,000 -- cutting about one in 18 -- and that
layoff notices could begin going out April 1.

By October 2004, the government plans to have 48,000 screeners, with
reductions through attrition and other steps.

Loy said he directed an internal task force to review staffing across the
country and to note airports with extra screeners.

The TSA's $4.5 billion budget for this fiscal year was not enough to pay for
all the agency's needs, he said. Loy will look to reduce screener numbers
through "attrition, voluntary relocations of screeners from airports with
too many employees to those with not enough, and conversion of some
full-time positions to part-time positions."

The chairman of the homeland security panel said that at Groton/New London
Airport in Connecticut, 26 federal screeners check an average of one
passenger every five hours. At Ben Epps Airport in Athens, six TSA screeners
handle about 39 passengers per day. The airport has three flights per day to
Charlotte on U.S. Airways Express.

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Kentucky) estimates screeners at a third of U.S.
airports check an average of three passengers an hour.

Rogers said he is disappointed by what he said was the agency's emphasis on
aviation security at the expense of highways, railroads, pipelines and
ports.

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