Inspector General says TSA needs more time, money

Jul 1, 2002 12:00 PM

           

Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead says the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), while working to meet deadlines and provisions of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, is targeted to spend more than $6.8 billion.

In his statement before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Mead says the agency will need nearly $4.4 billion in additional funding for fiscal year 2002.

To allocate additional funding, the Federal government initially implemented a security fee, added to the cost of every plane ticket. The money generated from that fee, however, should only be $900 million this year, and $1.7 billion next year.

“To meet funding requirements of $6.8 billion using only the proceeds from the security fee, we estimate the fee in [fiscal year] 2003 would have to be in excess of $10 per flight segment,” Mead says. “This means that on a round trip flight with one changeover each way, a passenger would pay over $40 in security fees alone.”

Aside from funding, the Inspector General also addressed the continuing deployment of explosives detection technology around the nation's airports. Progress, however, has been slow.

To help meet the Dec. 31 deadline, TSA recently awarded a $500 million contract to Boeing Service Company to deploy EDS and trace machines to airports and to train the screener workforce needed to operate the equipment.

“This deployment effort will be a huge challenge for TSA and Boeing, since only 200 EDS and 200 trace machines are currently in use at 56 airports for screening checked baggage as of June 12,” Mead says. “At least 900 EDS and an estimated 5,800 trace machines will have to be installed and made operational by Dec. 31, 2002, and an estimated workforce of 30,000 checked baggage screeners will need to be hired and trained to use the equipment.”

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