"Panel proposes wider use of private baggage screeners"

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Panel proposes wider use of private baggage screeners 
By Greta Wodele
CongressDaily


The House Homeland Security Committee wants airports to opt out of the
Transportation Security Administration's aviation screening program as part
of an agency reorganization the panel proposed Wednesday. 

Homeland Security Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and
Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-Calif., said legislation
the committee is introducing would provide airports with incentives and
flexibility to hire private screeners. 

If airport owners can show a savings by hiring a private screening company
as opposed to federal screeners, the owner can use the savings to buy more
technology, Lungren said. He dismissed the notion that the bill aims to
eliminate the federal screening program but rather gives airports
flexibility to get around the cap on the number of federal screeners. 

Congress has prohibited TSA from hiring more than 45,000 screeners since
creating the agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Lungren,
along with Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y, said he wants to
move the bill early next year. 

Democrats on the panel did not join their Republican colleagues Wednesday,
but Lungren said the GOP members consulted them about the legislation and
tried to address their concerns in the bill. 

But the bill does not include provisions on several hot-button issues raised
by Democrats, such as screening cargo placed on passenger airplanes and
bolstering rail and mass transit security in the wake of the London bombings
last summer. Lungren said the bill would increase accountability and
efficiency at TSA and, as a result, allow officials to focus more resources
on those issues. 

"This does not put us back to the pre-9/11 position," Lungren said. "It does
not eliminate [security] standards." 

Another provision in the bill would allow TSA to use commercial databases to
verify airline passenger's identity before boarding the aircraft. Congress
in the recently enacted fiscal 2006 Homeland Security spending bill
prohibited TSA from using commercial data. 

Lungren's bill would limit the use of commercial data by not allowing TSA to
"purchase, compile, obtain or otherwise possess" the information.
Nonetheless, the provision is likely to spark heated debate among Democrats
and privacy groups. 

The legislation also would set performance goals for TSA, state and local
governments and the private sector to continue improving airport security.
It would aim to reduce airline passenger frustrations with long security
lines by requiring TSA to develop a list of vetted passengers through
various programs that could bypass security checks and reduce lines. 

It would also create an independent, performance-based organization within
TSA to focus exclusively on airline passenger and baggage screening. 

There has not been a comparable proposal in the Senate, although Commerce
Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, plans to hold a series of hearings early
next year to determine if the agency needs to be reorganized, a committee
spokeswoman said.


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