Members of the House on Thursday proposed two competing proposals for how to fix long security lines at airports across the country, even as they headed to the airports themselves to return home for the Memorial Day recess.
Long lines at major airports have led to hours-long delays, and have led hundreds of people to miss their flights, and then scramble to find lodging for the night. It’s led to a battle in Congress over whether more money is needed, or whether reforms are in order at the Transportation Security Administration.
Earlier in the week, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., blamed Republicans for a 2013 budget deal that raised airline security fees for passengers, but then used that money for deficit reduction instead of paying for more TSA screeners.
“They raised the fee, and they diverted the money,” DeFazio said on the House floor Tuesday. “So airline passengers are paying more for their tickets, ostensibly for aviation security … but the Republican majority chose to divert that money to deficit reduction and other things. $1.25 billion this year.”
DeFazio noted that the union representing TSA screeners have said 6,000 more screeners are needed, and said Congress needs to use security fees for security, not deficit reduction.
“Don’t divert the money to illusory deficit reduction or other things around here,” DeFazio said.
To that end, DeFazio proposed legislation Thursday that would keep the new fees aimed at airport security. He said his bill would generate another $1.25 billion each year, enough to fund new personnel.
But Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., introduced a bill that leans on the idea of making TSA more efficient, and to more aggressively use the resources it has to carry out screening operations.
Katko’s bipartisan bill would, for example, let TSA use behavior detection officers to help move passengers through the system. Those officers are supposed to be monitoring suspicious activity at the gates, but their presence as been criticized by some as something that hasn’t made a tangible improvement to security.
Katko’s bill would also give officials more overall flexibility to make staffing allocation decisions, and put security dog teams at the biggest airports.
“This measure provides greater flexibility and accountability to the TSA — allowing the agency to better utilize its personnel by collaborating with local airports and air carriers to ensure that staffing is best allocated at each individual airport,” he said. “Moreover, by opening communication between local airports, air carriers and the TSA, this commonsense legislation will help ensure that passengers have minimal wait times.”
At a Wednesday hearing, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, noted that Congress recently allowed TSA to reprogram $34 million reprogrammed to hire more security officers. He also asked whether another reprogramming of funds might be a way around the problem, specifically by using existing funds to hire part-time TSA workers on as full-time workers.
Neffenger said that idea is already being considered.
“I think it’s important that we move more part-timers to full time because it drops my attrition rate dramatically, and it’s instant capability that I can put to use,” he said. “We’re working through the administration now on whether there’s a need for a second reprogramming request.”
In the meantime, two other bills from Katko have already passed the House. One would boost the vetting of TSA workers, and another is aimed at expanding enrollment in TSA’s PreCheck program, which lets people get through the lines more quickly.
But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., noted Friday that the Senate hasn’t passed those bills yet.
“So we have passed this PreCheck bill in the House, and I hope that the Senate will act soon, especially ahead of the busy summer travel,” he said.
