Editorial: We must do better than this

Friday, Oct. 19, 2001 | 10:04 a.m.

After the Sept. 11 hijackings, federal regulators ordered the private firms in charge of airport security to beef up the screening of passengers and baggage. So far the security companies haven't done a convincing job of making things better.

Just last weekend seven of the 20 security screeners at Dulles International Airport failed to pass a written skills test conducted by the U.S. Department of Transportation's inspector general. A baggage screener is required to pass the test before he starts his new job, and must also pass it every year. This is just one airport, but it makes us wonder just how many other baggage screeners are out there who also would fail. It also is hardly reassuring that over the weekend undocumented workers were discovered screening passengers at security checkpoints at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, or that federal prosecutors charged last week that criminals were hired as screeners at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Confidence in airport security has never been lower, for good reason. Privatized airport security has meant low-paid, badly trained employees, the product of low-ball bidding by private firms to win contracts from the airlines. Opinion polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants the federal government to take over airport security. We agree. Airport security screeners should be appropriately paid and should work for the federal government, not the airlines.

The Senate has passed legislation by a vote of 100 to 0 that would require airport security personnel to become employees of the U.S. Justice Department, but the bill is in limbo. The Republican House leadership still refuses to pass the measure, holding out stubbornly for privatization, even though the evidence clearly shows that farming out this important job to private contractors has failed. GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert, instead of running home in fear after anthrax was discovered in the Senate (not the House, it should be noted), should have kept the House in session and passed the Senate's bill that would strengthen airport security.