Ensign delays TSA choice until McCarran has enough screeners

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., will wait to see if the additional security screeners expected at McCarran International Airport are adequate before lifting his hold on the nomination of the director of the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA approved 81 additional screeners for the airport last week, including new employees for new security lanes to be opened later this year. The addition will give McCarran 823 screeners, but Ensign said the number is not the only thing that matters.

"The number is shorter lines," Ensign said. "It's not a question of how many screeners. When the new lanes open, we're going to see."

He does not want three- and four-hour waits at the airport.

Ensign said it is good some progress has been made but that he "wants to make sure Washington is paying attention to what Jim Blair is saying." Blair is McCarran's TSA security director.

Ensign serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, which will hold a hearing on the confirmation of Rear Adm. David Stone to lead the TSA before his nomination would go to the full Senate.

The latest recommendation of new screeners at McCarran and other airports brought its employee level up to its congressionally mandated limit of 45,000.

Raising the limit would have to be approved by Congress, but Ensign said some of the smaller airports have more screeners than McCarran, which he said is unacceptable.