Transportation agency hires thousands of screeners

Congress ordered the government last year to take over screening of air travelers from private contractors and to hire its own workers for the job.

"We said all along we will do this," the spokesman said. "It can and it will be done."

Some U.S. airports, however, will not meet the Dec. 31 deadline for screening all airline passenger baggage for bombs, in part because Congress cut back on spending for aviation security, the Transportation Department said Monday.

Officials did not say how many airports would miss the deadline Congress imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks. They said most will meet the baggage screening requirement, and all will have government workers screening passengers by a separate Nov. 19 deadline.

The administration has scrambled to meet a series of congressional deadlines, but the year-end deadline for screening baggage posed the biggest challenge.

In August, the Transportation Department's inspector general described the requirement as "unprecedented and monumental" and questioned whether enough machines could be produced and enough employees hired to operate them in time.