TSA says more money needed for airline security program
A beleaguered system for checking airline passenger names against criminal and terrorist lists is in "serious jeopardy" of missing deadlines once again if Congress does not provide more money, a Homeland Security official told lawmakers Wednesday.
"We're in very serious jeopardy of missing planned dates," said Justin Oberman, assistant administer of the Transportation Security Administration's Secure Flight program, explaining that House and Senate appropriators have reduced President Bush's budget request for the initiative this year by $15 million and $25 million, respectively. Bush asked Congress for $81 million. Last year, Congress decreased Bush's request by $35 million.
"We cannot make a go at those funding levels," Oberman told the Homeland Security Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee. He noted that running a system that connects every airline carrier and checks 1.8 million airline passengers daily is "very costly."
Lawmakers have criticized the Secure Flight program for not including adequate safeguards to protect traveler's personal data and missing deadlines to test and run the system. It has been renamed three times since its inception in 1996 -- from CAPPS I to CAPPS II and now Secure Flight. House and Senate appropriators said this year they reduced Secure Flight funding because TSA officials told them they will not have the program fully operational by October but will roll out the system to all commercial airliners next year, according to a House committee report on the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security spending bill.
TSA said it plans to test the first two airlines in August and the next airlines are not scheduled to begin until late 2005. Lawmakers also said TSA could not spend any money on Secure Flight until it matches 10 criteria outlined by Congress last year, including oversight, security safeguards, accuracy of data, cost to airlines, privacy protections and a system of redress for passengers who are incorrectly targeted by the system.
Oberman said Congress must meet Bush's budget request so the system can be tested in August. "I can't start the test and then turn it off when I run out of money," he argued, vowing the agency would meet all 10 criteria before full operations begin. Secure Flight, once operational, will allow TSA officials to check a traveler's name and date of birth against a consolidated list of known and suspected criminals and terrorists.
COMMENTS
- I was at a barbecue on the Fourth of July, and joined a discussion of airline security. A retired police officer who joined TSA to serve his country reported that he left after a couple of months, because of the many problems he saw at TSA. He said many of his co-workers were cop "wannabes", who abused passengers for fun. In particular, he told of one screener who told him to watch while he made some passengers miss their flight, while he took his time screening them. When asked why, he replied "because I can". This power-trip attitude is far from rare, and makes me wonder whether all the money we threw at TSA after 9/11 was well-spent. Not that the private screeners were any better. The problem seems to lie with poor management and supervision, as well as inadequate screening of prospective new employees. Hire well qualified people, train them well, give them decent salaries and benefits, as well as managers who know what they are doing, and TSA can still become a first class agency, that will do an even better job of defending the traveling public from terrorists. GovExec.com reader Posted July 5, 2005 7:20 PM
- Can't? TSA needs to have a federal librarian run them. Can't isn't a word we can use. It's make do with what you got and if you can't do it, then quit. TSA makes the DoD look cheap! a federal employee Posted June 30, 2005 3:08 AM
