Key senator schedules showdown on TSA bargaining language

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scheduled a Tuesday showdown on legislation that would give collective-bargaining rights to airport screeners working for the Transportation Security Administration, but lawmakers on Friday continued trying to find a compromise solution.

In a morning colloquy with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Reid said the Senate would vote first on a measure offered by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., that would allow screeners to unionize but allow TSA to retain the authority to "take whatever actions" it deemed necessary in emergencies.

A vote would follow on an amendment by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to strip the blanket collective bargaining provision from the overall legislation, which would implement the unaddressed 2004 recommendations of the 9/11 commission, Reid announced.

Republicans have denounced McCaskill's amendment. "It would create more problems than it would solve ... It's a non-starter," a DeMint spokesman said.

A behind-the-scenes effort to reach a compromise acceptable to both sides has been launched by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine. She said Thursday that she was working to find some "middle ground" that would give TSA adequate flexibility to respond to crises.

McConnell has not ruled out the possibility of a deal. "People are still trying to work things out," his spokesman said.

The White House has threatened to veto the 9/11 bill if it contains the current TSA collective bargaining provision, sponsored by Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. McConnell has said he has the votes to sustain the veto and that "this bill will not become law with this dangerous provision in it."