Plan to meet baggage screening deadline takes shape

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta on Wednesday announced that the government would rely more heavily on trace detection technology to meet a year-end deadline for screening checked baggage for explosives than previously planned.

Mineta also announced that the agency has picked a contractor to train thousands of potential baggage screeners.

The Transportation Security Administration will ask Congress to buy roughly 1,100 explosive detection systems and up to 4,700 trace detection machines in a supplemental budget request due later this week, Mineta told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce conference in Washington.

Transportation officials have long said they would rely on a combination of explosive detection machines and trace technology, a cheaper, more labor-intensive method that requires bags to be opened, to meet a Dec. 31 deadline in the 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act for screening all checked baggage.

But Mineta's announcement signals that TSA believes it can fulfill the deadline using fewer explosive detection machines than originally planned. Just last week, Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation that TSA consultants estimated it would take 1,670 more explosive detection machines to meet the Dec. 31 mandate. As of April 4, less than 180 such machines were in use across 54 airports, Mead testified.

In late March, TSA issued a request for proposals from private firms who will compete to oversee deployment of the baggage screening equipment. At certain airports, TSA plans to use one kind of technology while others will use a combination of methods.

Mineta also said that TSA has awarded a $105-million contract to Lockheed Martin Services Inc. to train applicants to its new baggage screening corps, which he said would have 32,000 employees. By law, candidates must undergo 40 hours of classroom training and 60 hours on the job before they can become federal screeners.

Minnesota-based firm NCS Pearson Inc. is handling screener recruitment. Screeners are being hired on an airport-by-airport basis and have already been recruited for airports in Anchorage, Alaska; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Louisville, Ky.; Mobile, Ala.; Spokane, Wash.; and Maryland's Baltimore-Washington International Airport. On April 30, BWI will become the first airport to be staffed exclusively by federal screeners, Mineta said.

Airports in Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Chicago; New York; Minneapolis; Orlando, Fla.; and San Francisco are next up for screener recruitment. TSA is also hiring attorneys and security specialists for the Federal Air Marshal program, according to job announcements on the TSA Web site. For further information on screener and law enforcement jobs at TSA, call (888) 328-6172.