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| SECURING THE SKIES | |
 July 23, 2002 
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| KWAME HOLMAN: It was
just a week ago that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta assured a
House committee that the newly formed Transportation Security Administration
would meet all deadlines imposed by Congress. They include a November
19 deadline for having in place a fully federalized workforce of airport
passenger screeners, and a December 31 deadline for all airports to have
systems in place to screen all checked bags for explosives.
NORMAN MINETA, Secretary of Transportation: That is what we are concentrating on, and that we are literally working seven days a week in order to comply with these dates. KWAME HOLMAN: But a day after Mineta said that, he fired TSA Administrator John Magaw. And today, Mineta told a House Transportation Subcommittee TSA was struggling to meet its deadlines. He blamed the Congress. NORMAN MINETA: Four months ago, President Bush asked Congress to approve a $4.4 billion emergency supplemental to stand up this new agency. And we waited for the funding through May, through June, and now July. In the meantime, the Transportation Security Administration has had to borrow money, renegotiated payment schedules with our vendors, defer purchase of explosive detection equipment, and set back the pilot testing of various security measures. Now TSA is literally days from running out of money to pay for the ongoing work of screeners nationally. KWAME HOLMAN: Alexis Stefani, an assistant inspector general at the Department of Transportation, gave an even more sobering description of TSA's problems. ALEXIS STEFANI: TSA estimates that it will need in total up to 33,000 screeners and supervisors to screen passengers. Over the last month, the pace of hiring has increased, and it's continuing to accelerate, but the heavy lifting is still to be done. TSA has almost doubled the number of screeners hired from over 1,200 to now we're at 2,475, and with another 4,000 individuals who have accepted offers for employment. As of last week, they were accepting applications at 250 airports. But, however, with less than four months left before the deadline, TSA needs to hire and train more than 7,600 passenger screeners each month to achieve its goal. While the TSA has made some adjustments in the hiring process to respond to past results, one area of concern needs to be highlighted. TSA is having difficulty in hiring enough screeners in major metropolitan airports, for example, New York. While TSA estimates it will need about 2,300 for the three large airports in the New York City area, job offers have been accepted for only about 15 percent of the targeted amount. Delays in hiring in these large cities have largely been due to no-shows. About 25 percent to 30 percent of those who apply don't show up for further assessment, and about 50-60 percent of those who show up for assessment fail the aptitude test. And finally, they also must hire, train, and deploy 21,600 screeners for checked bags. This is in addition to the 33,000 for passenger screeners. While it's too early to tell whether they'll have the same kind of hiring problem with the checked bag screeners, we think the lessons they've learned to date should be important in meeting the deadlines. NORMAN MINETA: Now, here's the dilemma that Congress has created. The amount of money Congress is about to approve simply will not support the mandates and the timetables for aviation security that Congress set last fall for TSA: Less money with no flexibility means fewer TSA employees, less equipment, longer lines, delays in reducing the hassle factor at airports, and/or diminished security at our nation's airports. Frankly, these conflicting signals sent by Congress have forced us to regroup and revise the TSA business plan. That will likely take several more weeks. It will involve complex negotiations and a review of literally thousands of TSA commitments and plans. KWAME HOLMAN: Mineta, who as a Democratic Congressman once chaired this very committee, admitted his words for his former colleagues may have been uncharacteristically blunt. NORMAN MINETA: But the circumstances demand no less. I know how difficult your job is. I've been there. I understand the competing pressures that each of you face in making public policy. KWAME HOLMAN: But Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio was furious. REP. PETER DeFAZIO: Excuse me Mr. Secretary. I've known you a long time. I am just really, just really upset at your performance here today. I mean, this was so partisan, so political. There are problems. There are problems with the appropriators, yes; there are problems in this House, in this committee, yes, but there are a hell of a lot of problems downtown. And last week you fired Mr. Magaw. And now this week it's all the problem with the appropriators that you can't meet any of these deadlines. This is unbelievable to me. When the President's own director of OMB recommends a quarter of a billion dollar cut, it's hard to say the administration was there 100 percent and is pushing. NORMAN MINETA: You know, I'm with you on this in terms of where we are on the funding, because I don't want to see this kind of cut going on, but by the same token, I know that the reality is if these are the cuts, I know what the impact is going to be in terms of what we're going to have to do at TSA to scale back the program. KWAME HOLMAN: New Jersey's Bill Pascrell seemed to catch Mineta off guard when he asked whether the Bush Administration wanted TSA's deadlines extended. REP. BILL PASCRELL: Will the administration recommend that the House take the deadline extension language out of the homeland security bill? NORMAN MINETA: Pardon? SPOKESMAN: We'll get back to him. REP. BILL PASCRELL: Mr. Secretary, I asked you a pretty simple question. I don't think it's very complex. NORMAN MINETA: I'm saying that there is no answer yet right now. KWAME HOLMAN: The committee then went into closed session for further discussion of security issues. |
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