"Newark Airport Getting Security Boost"

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Newark Airport Getting Security Boost
Feds Say Hundreds Of Screeners Coming To Airport
CBS News New York (NY)


Federal officials say security screener staffing levels at Newark Liberty
International Airport will soon be at full strength, but there was some
confusion on when that will occur. 

Stephen McHale, deputy director of the Transportation Security
Administration, told a House subcommittee on Wednesday that the new staffers
should be in place within 10 to 14 days. He said that will eliminate the
understaffing that allows thousands of checked bags to be loaded onto planes
without being electronically scanned for explosives. 

McHale told lawmakers that hiring is already under way and that staffing
levels have increased steadily in recent weeks. But those claims were later
clarified by Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman who said preliminary background
checks would be done and job offers made within two weeks. 

Davis also said that the 300 to 400 new screeners would all be in place
"within the next couple of months." But Mark Hatfield, the TSA's
communications director, later said Davis' timetable was wrong and that
McHale's comments were correct, and that the TSA stood by them. 

Hatfield said the new screeners -- mostly full-time staffers -- would be
"onboard, and either in their classroom training or moving through their
on-the-job training" within two weeks. He said roughly 1,600 screeners would
be working at the airport by month's end. 

TSA officials declined to say exactly when the airport would meet the
federal requirement that all checked bags be electronically screened, saying
it was "classified" information that would be given to Congress. 

Newark Liberty, one of the nation's busiest airports, handled 29.4 million
passengers in 2003, and screeners there are responsible for inspecting at
least 80,000 checked and carry-on bags per day. Several high-ranking state
officials, including Gov. James E. McGreevey and U.S. Sens. Jon Corzine and
Frank Lautenberg, have recently urged federal officials to remedy the
screener staffing problems.


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