TSA shuts door on private airport screening program
CNN
A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was “neutral” on the program.
TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
Though little known, the Screening Partnership Program allowed airports to replace government screeners with private contractors who wear TSA-like uniforms, meet TSA standards and work under TSA oversight. Among the airports that have “opted out” of government screening are San Francisco and Kansas City.
The push to “opt out” gained attention in December amid the fury over the TSA’s enhanced pat downs, which some travelers called intrusive.
Rep. John Mica, a Republican from Florida, wrote a letter encouraging airports to privatize their airport screeners, saying they would be more responsive to the public.
At that time, the TSA said it neither endorsed nor opposed private screening.
“If airports chose this route, we are going to work with them to do it,” a TSA spokesman said in late December.
But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.
“I examined the contractor screening program and decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports as I do not see any clear or substantial advantage to do so at this time,” Pistole said.
He said airports that currently use contractor screening will continue to be allowed to.
Pistole said he has been reviewing TSA policies with the goal of helping the agency “evolve into a more agile, high-performance organization.”
Told of the change Friday night, Mica said he intends to launch an investigation and review the matter.
“It’s unimaginable that TSA would suspend the most successfully performing passenger screening program we’ve had over the last decade,” Mica said Friday night. “The agency should concentrate on cutting some of the more than 3,700 administrative personnel in Washington who concocted this decision, and reduce the army of TSA employees that has ballooned to more than 62,000.”
“Nearly every positive security innovation since the beginning of TSA has come from the contractor screening program,” Mica said.
A union for TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employees said it supported the decision to halt the program.
“The nation is secure in the sense that the safety of our skies will not be left in the hands of the lowest-bidder contractor, as it was before 9/11,” said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “We applaud Administrator Pistole for recognizing the value in a cohesive federalized screening system and work force.”
Advocates of private screeners say it is easier to discipline and replace under-performing private screeners than government ones.
But Congress members have differed over the effectiveness of private screeners.
Mica said tests show that private screeners perform “statistically significantly better” than government screeners in tests of airport checkpoints. But the Government Accountability Office says it “did not notice any difference” during covert checkpoint testing in 2007. Both groups failed to find concealed bomb components, the GAO said.
Check out this press release from the government union thugs celebrating this great victory for them ~ Wild Thing
TSA Union Applauds Ending of Airport Privatization Program
USNewswire/ –The American Federation of Government Employees today praised Transportation Security Administration Administrator John Pistole for putting a stop to the privatization of this country’s airport screening function, also known as the Screening Partnership Program (SPP).
“The nation is secure in the sense that the safety of our skies will not be left in the hands of the lowest-bidder contractor, as it was before 9/11” AFGE National President John Gage said. “We applaud Administrator Pistole for recognizing the value in a cohesive federalized screening system and workforce.”
Airports have had the option of opting out of the federal screener system since TSA was created, but in those nine years only a handful out of 450 have chosen to do so. Today, Pistole issued a memo to the TSA workforce stating “to preserve TSA as an effective, federal counterterrorism security network, SPP will not be expanded beyond the current 16 airports, unless a clear and substantial advantage to do so emerges in the future.”
AFGE is the nation’s largest federal employee union and the only union to represent TSOs since the agency’s inception. With more than 12,000 dues-paying members in 38 AFGE TSA Locals across the country, AFGE is the union of choice for TSOs across the country.
Wild Thing’s comment……
I guess the fox does not want any help guarding the hen house.
The headline for the article might as well read, ” Government Employee Shuts Door on Plan that Would Reduce the Number of UNION” employees”
TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
Who made him king?
The first thing a government agency does when threatened by the private sector is to put an end to the private sector.
IMO the main goal of the TSA is to support the democrat party with funds and warm bodies. All that airport stuff is a distant second in importance.
Maybe we will get a new persident in 2012 that will remember Reagan’s actions with PATCO(the air traffic controllers union). Reagan fired them all when they threatened to strike and no more unions challenged Reagan.
This whole program needs to be scrapped. I would rather take my chances on the plane rather than wait at a security checkpoint with a hundred other people in those cattle chutes. Reminds me of a stockyard. Didn’t the moscow bomber blow up the security line?
Tom, that would be so wonderful.
Jim, it sure does. I agree, I would rather take my chances too,the way it is done now.