President Obama claims that unless Congress raises taxes to undo the imminent automatic budget cuts as sequestration, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would be forced to reduce security measures, leaving travelers and the airways vulnerable and increasing wait times at airports. Is there really not a dime that could be …
Over Thanksgiving weekend of 2006, airport screeners in Toronto began meticulously searching every carry-on bag by hand. The delays caused security lines to pile up. Passengers began missing their flights en masse. To break the bottleneck, supervisors allowed 250,000 passengers to board their flights with “minimal or no screening.” One …
Late last week, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials announced that they had preliminarily approved Sacramento International Airport to begin moving forward with privatizing their screening workforce. The move is part of TSA’s Security Partnership Program (SPP), the nearly eight-year-old program allowing U.S. airports to opt out of federal screening and …
Tomorrow, the House Committee on Homeland Security will hold a hearing on “TSA’s Efforts to Fix Its Poor Customer Service Reputation and Become a Leaner, Smarter Agency.” In describing the hearing, chairman Mike Rogers (R–AL) wrote: Through years of high profile mistakes and poor public communications, TSA [the Transportation Security …
Want to cut government spending? Without compromising security? The Ryan budget is a good start, but we can do more. How about rethinking the Transportation Security Administration? We need TSA. After all, terrorists continue to target commercial aviation in the U.S. But, do we really need a massive, bloated bureaucracy and …
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told Congress whom she trusts on February 15 when she responded to Congressman (and former Federal Flight Deck Officer) Chip Cravaack’s (R–MN) question at a House hearing. The exchange is exemplified with these remarks: Cravaack: “Is a Federal Flight Deck Officer the last line …
Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee released a scathing report that deconstructed the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) claims regarding the Screening Partnership Program (SPP). The SPP, created under the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, grants airports the ability to opt out of using federal screeners and instead …
Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced a replacement for the Homeland Security Advisory System, which was scrapped by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in January and won’t likely be missed by anyone. The new system—dubbed the National Terrorism Advisory System—takes the right steps toward adequately communicating with …
America can learn a lesson from the recent Moscow bombing: Just because we’re fortunate enough to live in America, where suicide bombings thankfully don’t happen – and God-willing won’t ever happen – we need to remain vigilant and ramp up our national security. After a couple recent close calls, particularly …
