"Proposed Budget Would Strip TSA of Its Biggest Programs"

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Proposed Budget Would Strip TSA of Its Biggest Programs
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
The Washington (DC) Post


The Transportation Security Administration, the primary government agency
entrusted with protecting travelers from terrorist attacks aboard commercial
airliners, faces a large-scale dismantling under President Bush's 2006
budget proposal. 

If approved by Congress, the proposal would strip the TSA of its biggest and
most high-profile programs and leave it largely as a manager of 45,000
security screeners at a time when airports may now elect to replace the
federal screeners with those employed by private companies. 
 
The Bush budget calls for the Department of Homeland Security to create an
office called Screening Coordination and Operations that would absorb some
programs of TSA and other divisions. The office would oversee records on
millions of Americans and foreigners in vast databases that contain digital
fingerprints and photographs, eye scans and personal information from
travelers and transportation workers. The move is meant to prevent overlap
among the various programs now scattered across the department and improve
efficiency. 

Officials are now exploring whether "there are ways to closely coordinate
and integrate these. Can they be married up?" said Homeland Security
spokesman Dennis Murphy. "Are there some savings by standardizing and even
merging these? We're constantly looking for those opportunities." 

Homeland Security officials said the new office would combine all of the
department's experts who are working on new technologies, privacy issues and
databases. Government officials want to explore whether a program designed
to vet the backgrounds of airline passengers, for example, would work for
screening travelers using other modes of transportation. 

If approved, the Screening Coordination and Operations office would include:


   . Secure Flight, a proposed TSA program that would probe the backgrounds
of each traveler who books an airline ticket and determine whether they
should receive additional screening. 

   . Registered Traveler, TSA's program now being tested at Reagan National
Airport and four others that allows frequent travelers to submit digital
fingerprints and undergo a background check in exchange for receiving a fast
pass through the airport checkpoint. 

   . Transportation Worker Identity Credential, a pilot TSA program that
verifies the identities and backgrounds of airport workers, truck drivers
and port employees and allows them access to secure areas. 

   . US VISIT, a program from the Customs and Border Protection division of
the department that collects digital fingerprints and photographs of foreign
visitors. 

   . International Registered Traveler, a newly announced program that would
speed customs and immigration processing for some frequent international
travelers who submit to a background check. It is now being tested at
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and New York's John F. Kennedy International
Airport. 

The consolidation of programs worries privacy activists who fear the
government is seeking to create a national surveillance system. "This
confirms our worst fears that DHS will become a one-stop shop for background
checks on a wide variety of Americans, ranging from airline passengers to
train travelers to workers in a variety of industries," said Barry
Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American
Civil Liberties Union. Steinhardt said the new office would allow the
government to maintain records on tens of millions of Americans each year. 

The proposal has fueled long-circulated rumors that the TSA -- which was
created a year before the Department of Homeland Security and is now a part
of it -- would eventually become folded into its other divisions. Homeland
Security spokesman Murphy declined to comment, but noted that the
administration has proposed $5.5 billion for TSA in 2006. 

"Five billion [dollars] is a healthy budget for a healthy agency," said TSA
spokesman Mark O. Hatfield Jr. "We will continue to deliver on our critical
security mission." 

TSA was once praised by Congress for serving on the front lines to protect
the nation from another terrorist attack, but its public stumbles --
including its overpayment of contractors by hundreds of millions of dollars
and reports that its security screeners still fail to catch guns and knives
at checkpoints -- have made it a target for criticism on Capitol Hill.
Already, the Federal Air Marshal service has left TSA to join another
division of Homeland Security. It also lost its science and technology
division to another part of the agency. TSA officials said they are
reorganizing staff responsible for rail, truck and maritime transportation. 

"TSA is beginning to look like a corporate entity, not a government entity,"
said Stephen D. Van Beek, an airport lobbyist, noting that much of the
agency's funding now comes from fees that travelers pay through airline
tickets. 

Attached Photo:

James F. Ports Jr., Maryland's deputy transportation secretary, and security
screener Shakia Booth check out new equipment at BWI Airport.

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