TSA cutbacks

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The government announced plans Wednesday to eliminate 3,000 more airport screening jobs by the end of September.

The cuts, coupled with 3,000 others announced in March, amount to about 11 percent of the 55,600 screeners employed. The moves will save the Transportation Security Administration an estimated $280 million, director James Loy said.

“TSA is entering a new stage in its maturation,” Loy said of the 17-month-old agency.

The first 3,000 cuts will be made by May 31, the rest by Sept. 30. Loy said the TSA will try to trim the work force through attrition and putting some workers on part-time hours.

Loy said the cuts won't diminish security, though it's possible they could add some time to the screening process. A 10-minute wait limit is still the goal, he said.

Airline security advocate Paul Hudson said the job cuts would compromise airport security unless the TSA improves other parts of the system. For example, he said, buying more van-sized bomb-detection machines would mean fewer screeners would be needed to operate the labor-intensive wands that detect traces of explosives.

“These labor cutbacks — unless they're coupled with some other measures to compensate to improve the system further — they will result in an overall reduction in security,” said Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project.

The TSA said it plans to commit about $1 billion for permanent installation of big bomb-detection machines this year.

The job cuts address critics in Congress, mainly Republicans, who believe the TSA grew too large too fast. To get around a congressionally mandated cap of 45,000 full-time screeners the TSA hired 9,000 “temporary” workers, most of whom were given five-year contracts.

Rep. Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Appropriations homeland security subcommittee, estimates screeners at a third of U.S. airports check an average of three passengers an hour.

“TSA threw money at the employee and screening deadlines in a shotgun fashion and over-hired,” Rogers said. “Congress mandated these reductions almost a year ago, and I am pleased TSA is finally starting to make progress.”

The cuts are also aimed at keeping staffing levels closer to what is needed at the nation's 429 commercial airports. About 250 airports are expected to end up with fewer screeners and 150 with more.

Pittsburgh International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport, for example, will each lose about 40 percent of their screeners.

“We've always erred on the side of security, and at bigger airports you always assumed you needed more people,” said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson. He also said some airports have seen a real slowdown in air traffic.

Yakutat Airport in Alaska, which sees business rise with the summer travel season, will go from 1 to 16 screeners.

Peter Winch, national organizer for the American Federation of Government Employees, said he was surprised to learn so many screener positions at large airports would be cut.

“At so many of the big airports the screeners tell me they're really busy, working overtime and understaffed,” Winch said. The union is fighting the TSA in court for the right to represent airport screeners and has petitioned for elections on collective bargaining at about 20 airports.

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“TSA is entering a new stage in its maturation,” Loy said of the 17-month-old agency.

"TSA is spending a ton of money and not getting anything done," Indyz said of the 17-month-agency.

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LESLIE MILLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Barely six months after an all-federal airport screening work force was hired, the government is considering establishing standards that could let some airports return to privately employed screeners next year.

Congress created the Transportation Security Administration after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and ordered it to replace private screeners, who critics said were poorly trained by companies more interested in making profits than providing security. Congress also gave airports the option of returning to private screeners in November 2004.

Some airport managers are frustrated with the TSA and its handling of screeners and are interested in the possibility of hiring private companies to do the work.

TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said a working group is studying how airports would propose to hire private companies and how the agency would evaluate the plans.

“Though there is some rumbling about airports who may be interested in doing this, we need to be clear that we are still putting the finishing touches on the federal program, and a year and a half is a long way off,” Johnson said.

Advocates believe private companies would be more adaptable to individual airport needs, but they say screeners still should have the same training, pay, benefits and oversight as federal employees.

Steve van Beek, senior vice president of Airports Council International-North America, the largest airport trade group, said some airports worry that TSA job cuts will make passengers wait longer to board flights.

Airport directors say they could better manage the workload if the TSA would give them more freedom to deploy part-time screeners. Now it's up to the TSA to determine the mix of full- and part-time workers.

Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, urged TSA chief James Loy to begin putting in place a system for airports to request private screeners.

Like other congressional Republicans, Mica, R-Fla., worries that the Transportation Security Administration has grown too large, too fast, and is unwilling or unable to respond to needs of individual airports.

Some members of Congress are alarmed at the prospect that private contractors might return.

“We can't go there,” said Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, ranking Democrat on Mica's subcommittee. “The private screeners previously were supposedly under federal supervision, and they comprised the lowest-paid, highest-turnover employees in the airport.”

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said aviation security is part of homeland defense and the federal government's responsibility.

“How quickly we forget,” he said. “We just went through this horrific process of switching from an inadequate private security system.”

The TSA began hiring screeners last spring and ended up with 56,000 workers, far more than many Republicans in Congress believed were necessary. They are deployed at 424 commercial airports.

To gauge how well federal screeners are doing, Congress ordered five other commercial airports to use private screeners. Those airports are in San Francisco; Rochester, N.Y.; Tupelo, Miss.; Jackson, Wyo., and Kansas City, Mo.

Under the program, those screeners are employed by private companies under the supervision of local TSA security directors. They're hired, trained, paid and tested to the same standards as federal screeners.

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