Security Notice
To: ACI-NA Public Safety & Security Committee
Re: Airport Alert: House
Subcommittee Approves TSA Reorganization Bill
Date: March 16, 2006.
Airport
Legislative
Airport
Alert
To:
AAAE/ACI-NA Chief Executives and Airport Operators on E-Mail
Distribution
From:
Re:
Airport Alert: House Subcommittee Passes TSA
Reorganization Legislation
Bill Now Moves to Homeland
Security Committee for Consideration
Date:
At a brief meeting this
morning, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Economic Security,
Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity approved H.R. 4439, the TSA
Reorganization Act, sending the measure to the full House Homeland Security
Committee for consideration at a yet-to-be determined future date. In a somewhat surprising development,
the subcommittee opted to adopt all pending amendments by voice vote this
morning, including one by Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) to strip
provisions in the bill aimed at expanding the Screening Partnership Program and
an amendment by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) to reverse recent TSA changes to
the prohibited items list.
Although it is difficult
to know for certain, there was an expectation that those amendments would have
failed on party-line votes had all Republican subcommittee members been in
attendance this morning, and Subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren (R-CA) made clear
that those amendments would likely be re-visited when the full committee
considers the bill. There is an
expectation that the full committee will consider amendments to require the
physical screening of all airport employees as well as we have previously
noted.
In-Line EDS Installation
Major Focus of House Bill
As we reported last week
when the subcommittee began consideration of the legislation, in-line EDS
installation is a major focus of the underlying bill with a proposed increase
from $250 million to $600 million in mandatory spending for that purpose along
with an additional $400 million authorization of funding for in-line
installation. Additionally, before
adoption of the DeFazio amendment today, the underlying bill included a proposed
expansion of the airport opt-out program with the creation of a share-in-savings
program to reimburse airports for deploying in-line systems.
Finally on the in-line
EDS installation front, the subcommittee last week adopted a separate amendment
offered by Subcommittee Chairman Lungren – which survived intact today – that
would allow certain airports to impose a $1 Airport Security Charge on
originating passengers for approved projects to implement in-line checked
baggage screening programs. The same amendment offered by Chairman Lungren would
increase the passenger security fee to $4 per one-way trip through 2012. After that time, the fee would drop to
$2.50 per one-way trip. Under the
Lungren amendment, the fees that individual air carriers pay to TSA to help
offset the costs of TSA operations would be eliminated.
Beyond EDS installation,
the bill seeks to give airports and other industry groups additional input in
reviewing TSA policy through the establishment of Transportation Sector Advisory
Councils. These advisory panels
would provide “advice and counsel” to TSA on management, policy, spending, and
regulatory matters including interim final rules.
The bill also
establishes an Airport Screening Organization within TSA headed by a Chief
Operating Officer. According to the
bill summary, “accountability
and efficiency are the two driving principles behind the establishment of the
ASO. Under current practices, standard setting, policy, regulation and
inspection of TSA airport screening operations are carried out by the same body
within TSA that runs the screening operations. This section distinguishes
between TSA's various roles and responsibilities and addresses the need to
separate TSA's primary operations from its regulatory responsibilities. It
formally establishes arms-length relationships between the ASO and the
regulatory, certification, policy and inspections bodies within TSA to eliminate
the conflict of interest inherent to regulated party acting as the
regulator.” The bill also requires
a study of TSA non-screener personnel along with recommendations on “which
positions, if any, can be eliminated without degradation of security screening
activities.”
A summary of the bill can be viewed at: http://www.aaae.org/_pdf/_govpdf/HR4439Managers3-9.pdf. Keep in mind that the DeFazio amendment adopted today stripped all provisions in the bill relating to the Screening Partnership Program (Section 201). The summary also does not reflect the inclusion of the Markey amendment on prohibited items or several others adopted by the subcommittee last week.