"TSA reorg bill pushes business, tech improvements"

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

TSA reorg bill pushes business, tech improvements   
BY Michael Arnone
Federal Computer Week


Republican leaders on the House Homeland Security Committee introduced a
bill today that would restructure the Transportation Security Administration
to make the agency more business-savvy and encourage its use of new security
technologies. 

The TSA Reorganization Act of 2005 intends to improve airline security,
reduce passengers' travel frustrations and cut wasteful spending, said bill
sponsor Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), chairman of the committee's Economic
Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee. 

Lungren and other GOP members on the committee submitted the bill two days
after a blistering report from the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the
nonprofit successor to the federal 9/11 Commission. 

The report gave the Homeland Security Department, which includes TSA, a
grade of F for improving airline passenger screening programs because of the
privacy and performance problems with Secure Flight, TSA's pre-screening
program. Baggage and cargo screening received a D, and explosives detection
at passenger screening checkpoints got a C. 

"Things are far from perfect. This goes a long way to make things less
imperfect," said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the full committee,
who spoke with Lungren at a press conference. 

The bill would set new performance goals for TSA, state and local
governments, and the private sector intended to improve airport security. It
would also allow agency spending based on assessments of risk and
vulnerability, and develop accurate accounting and cost-analysis practices
for all agency programs.

The bill offers an incentive to airports that train their own
passenger-screening staff. Airports that use private screeners which cost
less than federal screeners can keep at least 90 percent of the savings to
reinvest in new technologies. 

The share-in-savings provision aims to urge state and local governments and
federal contractors to compete with TSA to improve airport security. The
bill would encourage private-sector investment in new transportation
security technology.

Within 90 days of the bill's passage, TSA would have to establish a program
that instantly pre-screens international travelers to the United States to
weed out terrorists before their planes take off. 

Lungren said he thinks TSA can create such a program faster than the agency
has said it could. "They think if they didn't invent the wheel, they can't
use it," he said. 

TSA should replicate similar programs used in Australia and other countries,
Lungren said. The agency should look for commercially available products
that can scale up to handle the volume of passengers TSA handles, he said. 

To speed known safe passengers through security checkpoints, TSA would have
to create a Vetted Passenger List of people already cleared by other
credentialing programs, such as Registered Traveler, Transportation Worker
Identity Credential and federal security clearances.

The bill would create a chief operating officer position to oversee daily
agency operations. The COO would report directly to Kip Hawley, assistant
secretary of homeland security for TSA, and focus on improving customer
service to passengers and ensuring effective screening programs. 

The bill would also create two autonomous bodies within TSA to improve
customer service and the agency's business performance. The first would make
the agency's passenger and baggage screening more performance-based and
results-oriented. 

The second, the Airport Screening Office, would consolidate TSA screening
operations. It would operate as a business and focus on customer service,
accountability and cost reductions.

Finally, the bill would create industry councils for each transportation
mode to advise TSA on management, policy and other matters. 

The full committee has scheduled to mark up the bill in January 2006.


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