Editorial: Be flexible but meet deadlines

Wednesday, June 5, 2002 | 9:21 a.m.

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, passed after Sept. 11, is a law in progress, and we see the need for some flexibility as the nation's airports convert to its new security requirements. The law sailed through Congress with enormous public support and was crystal clear in its mandate that all checked luggage be screened by explosive detection machines beginning Jan. 1, 2003. With that deadline less than seven months away, and with follow-up federal guidelines -- such as where best to install the machines -- still in the drafting stages, airport managers around the country are raising alarms about their ability to comply.

Randy Walker, who manages McCarran International Airport, was one of the top officials of 39 airports who signed a letter to the Transportation Department, seeking postponement of the deadline. The airport managers cited the lack of clear direction from the federal government and the time and cost involved in renovating their facilities to make room for the biggest and best explosive detection machines, which are the size of minivans. At McCarran, Walker says, it will cost $2 million and take three years to expand the ticketing area so that it can accommodate the machines.

We understand why the Transportation Department will not ask Congress to extend the law's deadline. The law was one of the federal responses to Sept. 11 that began restoring a sense of safety to Americans. But we do agree with the need for some flexibility that has been expressed by the point man on enforcing the law, John Magaw, who heads the department's Transportation Security Administration. On Tuesday, Magaw was careful to say the timetable would be followed, but he also said there could be temporary procedures until airports finish their renovations, such as using smaller screening devices.

Such flexibility is necessary in the post-Sept. 11 era, even as all levels of government leave behind the old way of doing things. But regarding a deadline as the time by which you automatically give or receive an extension is very much a part of the old way; in 2002 this is no longer acceptable.