Original Post-September 11th Bill Allows Airports To Hire Private Security

In the midst of all the controversy over pat-down searches that are regarded as intrusive and privacy concerns stemming from the use of backscatter scanners, Congressman John Mica (R-FL) is reminding airports that there is an alternative to TSA screening.

The Washington Examiner reports that, in a letter sent to the managers of more than 150 airports around the country, Mica, who is the likely chair of the House Transportation Committee when Congress convenes in January, said airports can opt out of security measures provided by TSA in favor of a return to private security companies.

Mica was one of the authors of the 2001 legislation which created TSA in the wake of the September 11th terror attacks on the U.S. In the letter, Mica said "When the TSA was established, it was never envisioned that it would become a huge, unwieldy bureaucracy which was soon to grow to 67,000 employees. As TSA has grown larger, more impersonal, and administratively top-heavy, I believe it is important that airports across the country consider utilizing the opt-out provision provided by law."

Mica said the security measures now in use in most of the nation's airports are little more than "security theater." "It's a big Kabuki dance," he said.

Mica told the paper that, according to a recent GAO report, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program created by TSA was implemented before there was any scientific validation of TSA's process of identifying suspicious passengers. He said the program was far from the El Al program which profiles and questions suspicious passengers before they are allowed to board an airplane. Mica noted in a previous letter to the Department of Homeland Security that, according to the GAO, "at least 17 known terrorists ... have flown on 24 different occasions, passing through security at eight SPOT airports." One of those was the person accused of attempting to detonate a car bomb on New York's Times Square.

Mica and some others in Congress say that there needs to be meaningful changes in the way TSA works, and that those changes should come quickly. When the agency was created, there was a major debate over whether the employees of the new agency should be government workers or private contractors. The federal government pays the costs of the program regardless, and tests conducted in five airports reportedly showed that contractors performed marginally better than the federal employees.

FMI: http://house.mica.gov, www.tsa.gov