Monday, September 15, 2003
Eyewitness News uncovers
expensive airport screeners Watch video
KSTP-TV Ch 5 ABC, St.
Paul/Minneapolis (MN)
Sunday night an Eyewitness News investigation
detailed a major staffing problem at Minnesota's airports--a problem that's
costing you, the taxpayer, money. Taxpayers are paying big money to house
and feed federal airport screeners.
Bob McNaney has the exclusive
story:
The pre-flight routine here in Minnesota's small airports, like
here in Brainerd is about the same as you see at MSP. But unlike there,
many of the screeners are not from Minnesota.
These are the outposts of
commercial aviation: Grand Rapids, Minnesota; Brainerd. Places like that. All
still staffed by Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
screeners.
These employees, in many cases, are from other states. You are
not only paying their salaries, but you are picking up the tab for them to get
here, live in hotels here and eat here.
On this five-member crew working
a flight in Brainerd, four are from outside Minnesota: Two from Wisconsin, one
from Nebraska and one from North Carolina.
She tells Eyewitness News that
she has been working in Brainerd for the past 6 months .She tells Eyewitness
News. TSA workers from as far away as Puerto Rico are screening passengers here
in Minnesota.
The TSA says it was in the process of staffing these
Minnesota airports, when Congress enacted a hiring freeze. That
meant existing employees from other regions were moved to Minnesota.
Amy
Von Walter of the TSA told McNaney, “ Our primary goal is to get local people
put into these positions, and there is a cost to having these mobile screeners.
But the optional cost would be shutting down these airports; and clearly that is
not an option.”
According to government sources, these employees are
costing you, the taxpayer, roughly $85 dollars a day in hotel and per diem
costs. On top of that, they are full-time employees--some working just two or
three flights in a day.
When asked about it, a high-ranking TSA staffer
in Washington, D.C. tells Eyewitness News, "Is it cost effective? No... nobody
likes this, believe me."
“I hope this is something we can rectify,” said
Minnesota Republican Congressman Mark Kennedy. He is on the House
transportation committee.
“It is very troubling, especially in rural
Minnesota. Good paying jobs are precious, and we still want to go,
to the greatest extent possible, to get those jobs to Minnesotans--who have a
far greater interest in the security of the region.”
The TSA confirms
that, as luck would have it, Minnesota has a disproportionally high number of
so-called “mobile screeners”.
Next year, all airports will have the
option to return to private screeners.
However, TSA undercover tests of
both the federal and private screeners show they miss about an equal amount of
potential problems.
If you have a multimedia equipped computer, click on
the link below to watch the video:
http://www.kstp.com/viewer/content/special.php?Art_ID=120390&Format_ID=2&BitRate_ID=8&Contract_ID=246