Report urges lawmakers to extend baggage screening deadline

Lawmakers should extend the Dec. 31 deadline for installing explosive-detection equipment at airports to scan checked baggage, according to a report released Thursday by the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based research and public policy group. Extending the current deadline to 2004 would give airports more time to reconfigure their facilities to install the large scanning machines and allow the Transportation Security Administration to study the use of different technology, the report concluded. Aviation experts are pushing Congress and the Bush administration to revise plans for bolstering security at the nation's 429 commercial airports. In particular, there is concern that the TSA and airport authorities will not meet the December deadline for installing explosive-detection equipment to screen baggage. "EDS [explosive detection systems] is a flawed technology," the report said. "For some items, the EDS machine cannot discern a difference between common products and known threat items." EDS refers to multi-million dollar machines that use technology similar to hospital CT scans to screen luggage. Initially, the agency plans to deploy 1,100 EDS machines. It will also put 4,800 trace-detection machines in circulation. These devices can detect minute amounts of explosive residue on a piece of luggage. They are labor-intensive, requiring employees to go over a bag with a cotton swab, which is then put into a detection machine. In many cases, the trace-detection machines will be used as a backup. Trace detection will be used to screen bags flagged by EDS machines.

While commending the report for raising some critical questions, Stephen Van Beek, senior vice president of policy at the Airports Council International-North America, questioned whether a blanket extension until 2004 is the right answer. Van Beek suggested an airport-by-airport approach, since some small airports are likely to meet the Dec. 31 deadline while larger airports, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, will need more time. In those cases, Van Beek said the airport authority and TSA should sign an agreement requiring the airport to meet a minimum standard by the end of the year and come up with a more realistic deadline for checking all checked baggage. Van Beek expressed concern that TSA has yet to tell airports how many machines they'll be getting and what the mix will be of EDS and trace technology. TSA and Transportation Department officials did not return phone calls for this story. Given that the ultimate mix of technology is unknown, Reason places the cost of a baggage screening system at anywhere between $3 billion and $12 billion. "These costs are very sobering. At the very least, they suggest a pause for rethinking, to put them in perspective relative to other federal expenditures on dealing with terrorism," the report said. Even if the money were available, the report warned against buying "mediocre technology." Instead, the report, written by Viggo Butler, chairman of United Airports Limited, a group specializing in airport privatizations, and Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason, called for the creation of a blue ribbon panel to study the use of different screening technologies.