GovernmentExecutive.com

Congress should direct the Transportation Security Administration to spend money on screening technology rather than "armies of personnel," House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla. said Tuesday.

He also advocated administrative action to change from a federally operated system to one run by private contractors.

Mica said a report released Tuesday by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general bolsters his argument.

A recent GAO report found that screening operations at airports with privatized systems performed better than those with federal screeners.

"Over the last three-and-half years, we have spent billions of dollars creating a Soviet-style, centralized bureaucracy that has resulted in greater inefficiencies and inflexibility with little improvement in screening effectiveness," Mica said.

Airports have expressed interest in opting out of the federal screening program, but airport officials and screening companies want the federal government to provide private screeners with limited liability protection.

Mica also said he would support a $3 hike in airport security fees, which the Bush administration proposed in its fiscal 2006 budget, only if it is dedicated to purchasing technologies that detect explosives.

COMMENTS

• Heck Yes, give them up to date technology! I wonder how motivational it is for those federal screeners who do a good job to hear how much better a contractor is (supposedly) at performing their job? Perhaps the focus should be on processes and management of those folks to ensure a greater success rather than penalizing the whole lot. A workforce is only as good as it's management so instead of replacing/blaming the workers, try replacing those who are responsible for managing the mission. In government we judge a bunch of apples bad because of one bad apple. This has got to stop as there are many of us who are loyal, dedicated and we don't appreciate being run down all the time by those inspector generals and audit teams (who are probably made up of or guided by contractors) who never give credit where it's due. Our government should focus on ensuring that those in charge of screening are provided the training and resources, to include incentives for exceptional performance. Face it, the private firms who'd most likely do the job are often run/owned by retired military or civilians who were in high level positions who couldn't seem to get it right when they were in government service but now have some superior knowledge on running the show. Give the feds the tools to do the job and they'll get it done. Show some support for a change. GovExec.com reader Posted April 21, 2005 11:01 AM
• Federal Screeners as a vast majority are professional and want to do a good job regardless of the difficulties that the non-uniform management put in our place. Look to various attempts by the uniformed TSA force to get the training and equipment we need. Do you really expect the private sector to do this? Remember profit drives the success of business and political campaign contributions!!! Brian Bauer Posted April 20, 2005 6:54 PM
• Here we go folks, the slippery slope back to the good old days. Get some contractors in there and they can do the job. These are code words for cheap illegal immigrants working to keep the terrorists off airplanes. Not going to happen. Contractors are a part of the reason we had 9-11-2001. Do we want to go back to the same program we had when we were hit? I think not. You can't run everything on the cheap. GovExec.com reader Posted April 20, 2005 7:24 AM