Aviation security agency imposes hiring freeze

The administrator of the Transportation Security Administration halted the agency's break-neck hiring campaign on Wednesday to avoid violating a congressionally imposed cap on the size of the agency, a TSA spokesman said Friday.

TSA Administrator James Loy issued a hiring freeze to keep the agency from surpassing 45,000 employees, a limit set by Congress when it created the agency last November. The freeze applies to all TSA employees, including baggage screeners and air marshals, and will remain in effect until lawmakers raise the limit on the number of full-time employees, according to TSA spokesman Robert Johnson.

The freeze is the culmination of a months-long battle over the size of the aviation security agency. TSA has said it would need 67,000 employees to perform its mission of screening all checked baggage, but congressional appropriators, particularly Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, have balked at letting the agency hire more than 45,000 people.

TSA should reach the 45,000 figure by the end of this weekend, after deployment of a new batch of baggage screeners, Johnson said. A continuing budget resolution now being debated in Congress would maintain the employee cap at 45,000, Johnson added. "Right now we are working with the Congress to see what the new numbers will be not only in the continuing resolution but in the new budget year," he said.

TSA has until Nov. 19 to install federal baggage screeners at all of the nation's airports under the 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act, which created the agency. Johnson would not estimate how long the freeze might stay in effect.

TSA is still accepting job applications for baggage screeners and other airport security positions, but the agency will not move forward on these applications until the freeze is lifted. "You can always throw your hat into the ring, it's just a matter of if and when we'll be able to move forward, beyond the group that joins the ranks this weekend," said Johnson. "Anyone who has not reported by Sept. 29 will be on hold until further notice."