Airport to get extra security screeners

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, May 19, 2004 | 1:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration will be sending 46 more security screeners to McCarran International Airport than the agency had recommended in a report issued Friday.

"It's an improvement. At least it's going the right way," said Rosemary Vassiliadis, Clark County Department of Aviation deputy director.

The TSA on Friday recommended that 35 screeners be added to the Las Vegas airport's current roster of 742 currently employed at the airport. But on Tuesday TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said McCarran will get 81 additional screeners, which will raise the total to 823.

Melendez said the TSA's original recommendation was based only on the existing security lanes at McCarran and did not include the federal commitment for the new security lanes, expected to be added this summer.

Vassiliadis said the addition "will allow staffing in our additional checkpoint lanes during peak times, which of course are the most critical."

Melendez would not speculate on when the new screeners would start, as the agency is still in the process of identifying potential candidates. Those identified must meet minimum citizenship and education requirements before completing 100 hours of training, Melendez said.

McCarran officials had said in April that 300 more screeners were needed to properly staff seven additional security checkpoints scheduled to open at the airport this summer.

Vassiliadis said she hoped staffing would be increased again when a new wing of the D gates currently under construction opens next year.

"I'm sure this will be a continual issue that we will have to deal with with the TSA," she said. " At least it's better."

Because of a congressionally imposed limit of 45,000 screeners for the nation's airports, any increase to McCarran must come at a cost to another airport. In the latest adjustment, the TSA added 1,175 screeners nationally to bring its workforce to 45,000.

On Tuesday Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., spoke with Rear Adm. David Stone, the acting director of the agency, and asked him why Friday's report included such a small addition of screeners for McCarran, especially since Stephen McHale, TSA deputy administrator, had assured her and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., at a House Aviation Subcommittee hearing last week that the airport's needs would be met, Berkley's spokesman David Cherry said.

"The extra lanes are now really the critical part of reducing or maybe eliminating a lot of the waits," McHale said at last week's hearing, according to a transcript. "So we're looking forward to getting that in place. We will fully staff those lanes."

Cherry said there has been discussion of Congress changing the cap. Some Democrats, including Berkley, want to change it while Republicans want it to stay at the same level, he said.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee that will need to approve Stone, announced Monday that he would hold Stone's nomination until the airport got the number of screeners it needs and deserves.

On Tuesday Ensign's spokesman Jack Finn said the senator had not confirmed the increase yet, so the hold on Stone's Senate confirmation will stand "until the senator is satisfied."

Finn would not say whether Ensign would move to increase the total number of screeners to accommodate airport growth.