Airport screeningAirports say TSA makes privatizing security screening a challenge
Airport officials described their challenges getting the Transportation Security Administration(TSA) to approve contractors, as part of the agency’s push to privatize more aviation security. The TSA was created to standardize and improve security after 9/11, but the agency’s Screening Partnership Programfor airports allows for private contractors, as long as security levels meet standards set by the TSA.
At a Tuesday hearing at the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Transportation Security, airport officials described their challenges getting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to approve contractors, as part of the agency’s push to privatize more aviation security. The TSA was created to standardize and improve security after 9/11, but the agency’s Screening Partnership Program for airports allows for private contractors, as long as security levels meet standards set by the TSA.
USA Today reports that Congress is seeking to expand the program beyond the current eighteen airports, but a 2012 law that made the application process easier so more airports could participate has received mix reviews. “There is no reason why (the program) cannot be expanded to create even greater efficiencies under a risk-based system,” said panel chairman Representative Richard Hudson (R-North Carolina). Cindi Martin, director of Glacier Park International Airport in Montana, noted that her application process began in October 2009 and she expects private screeners to arrive in August. “We are seeing the light at the end of what has been a very long tunnel,” Martin said. “Despite the frustrating length of time through the fits and starts in the process and lack of communication from TSA, we could do it all again.”
William Benner, the program’s director, said the agency’s goal going forward is a less-than-one-year turnaround time from application to contract award. “That is a very aggressive timeline,” Benner said. “Are we getting better? I’m convinced we are.”
In addition to offering airports flexibility on who performs security duties, the program is meant to use private contractors to save the federal government money; but current cost comparisons show only a 0.2 percent difference between private screeners and the TSA.
TSA management costs have been reported to be a significant percentage of overall security costs for airports but J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers, said management costs remain even with private contractors. “There is no documentation of the superiority of private screeners,” Cox said. “There are no cost savings.”
The TSA and the Government Accountability Office have agreed to further study the comparisons.
