Editorial: Changes in air security fall short

Monday, July 29, 2002 | 8:52 a.m.

It isn't comforting that the federal government almost certainly is going to miss two key deadlines in developing new programs to improve airport security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Transportation Security Administration's goal was to hire 33,000 new airport screeners by Nov. 19, but so far the agency has only hired 7,700. Not only is there no way they can possibly meet that deadline, but it will be next to impossible to hire an additional 21,600 screeners who will be needed by Dec. 31 to screen the checked bags of passengers. But that's not all. The TSA also won't be able to meet its Dec. 31 goal to screen 100 percent of checked bags to look for bombs. Currently, the demand for the expensive, high-tech screening machines is about three times the actual number of machines in existence. So if the TSA went ahead and tried to screen every bag despite the serious shortage, it's been estimated that this could cause delays of several hours for passengers, creating a chaotic situation at airports.

The inability to meet the deadlines means that the Washington Blame Game is in full swing. Last week at a congressional hearing, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta tried to pin the blame on Congress for not fully funding the Transportation Security Administration, trimming the $4.4 billion request down to $3.85 billion and imposing restrictions on how the money could be spent. Mineta has a point, but he still is being disingenuous in part because even if he had all the money, the reality is that these jobs would be vacant anyway since the Transportation Security Agency has run into extreme difficulty finding enough qualified people to fill these jobs.

On top of all of this there has been upheaval at the TSA. Mineta last week fired the TSA's administrator, John Magaw, after members of Congress grew impatient with what they saw as his imperious attitude. Now, especially in light of the turmoil, Congress and the Bush administration should try to work together. Finger-pointing won't do. What shouldn't be forgotten is that our airport security is still vulnerable to a terrorist attack. The key now is to forge ahead and, as quickly as possible, hire quality baggage screeners and get more high-tech screening machines in place in order to ward off future attempts at terrorist hijackings.