In transportation security, blame game is in full swing

When Congress passed monumental legislation last fall overhauling the nation's airport security, Washington seemed guided by a sense of unity, purpose, and determination to get the job done.

"The broad support for this bill shows that our country is united in this crisis," President Bush said when he signed the legislation into law. "We have our political differences, but we're united to defend our country, and we're united to protect our people. For our airways, there is one supreme priority: security."

But eight months later, this unity has become a political blame game. At two separate congressional hearings last week, the Bush administration faulted Congress for not giving the administration enough money to do the job. House Democrats blasted their Republican counterparts over a GOP effort to extend a key airport security deadline. And Congress, the airlines, and other aviation interests have continued to pillory the new Transportation Security Administration, contributing to the ouster of the agency's chief, John W. Magaw, in mid-July.

However, it shouldn't be surprising that airport security has turned into such a political food fight. After all, fighting is one of the things that Congress and presidential administrations do best.

"Assigning blame and finger-pointing is easy in Washington," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said last week at a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing.

Most understood that overhauling airport security wasn't going to be easy. In November, Congress passed legislation creating the Transportation Security Administration, which was placed inside the Transportation Department and assigned the task of providing security for the nation's airways, highways, waterways, and railways. The bill also required the TSA to scrap the old airport screening workforce run by the airlines and turn it into a federal one.

The legislation, moreover, set ambitious deadlines. It mandated the TSA to hire and deploy this federal screening workforce by November 19. And it required the agency to install thousands of explosive-detection machines to screen all passenger bags by December 31. Congress created these tough, arbitrary deadlines because it had become frustrated by the delays and inaction that resulted from its previous attempts over the past two decades to revamp airport security.

"We want those guys to move heaven and earth to get there," said Andy Davis, spokesman for Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., who played a key role in writing the legislation.

Yet at the congressional hearings last week, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta maintained that the TSA cannot move heaven and earth without sufficient funding. Congress, he complained, had cut $1 billion from the $4.4 billion the agency requested in the recently passed $28.9 billion emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That measure also capped the TSA's total workforce at 45,000 for the rest of this fiscal year; Mineta says that the TSA will eventually need 67,000 workers.

Mineta warned that if the TSA doesn't receive the money and the workers it needs, it will have a hard time meeting the difficult deadlines that Congress has set.

"Give us the tools and the flexibility that we need to build this organization," he told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Many members of Congress, however, didn't buy Mineta's argument. They noted that the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget seemed quite happy to cut a sizable amount of the TSA spending to trim the overall supplemental package to $28.9 billion. Furthermore, nearly half of what Mineta was calling a cut-$480 million-was actually set aside in a contingency fund, and insiders say that this money would eventually be available to the TSA.

Still, one transportation lobbyist points out that Mineta's complaint about a lack of money was a smart move. "They know they aren't going to meet that [baggage] deadline," the lobbyist said. "And they have to find someone to blame."

Other finger-pointing was also going on last week. Because of doubts about TSA's ability to meet the December 31 baggage-screening deadline, House Republicans added a provision in the recently passed Department of Homeland Security legislation that could extend the deadline as much as a year for many airports. Airlines and airport groups have argued that placing bomb-detection machines-which are the size of sport-utility vehicles-inside the airports poses architectural problems. They have also noted that, as the TSA hurries to meet the deadline, the agency will have to resort to smaller (but more labor-intensive) explosive-trace machines, which will crowd airport lobbies and create long lines and waits.

"I think we are heading for a national embarrassment during the holiday season," said Kevin P. Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "I don't think that three-hour check-ins will be an exaggeration."

But the move to extend the baggage deadline infuriated House Democrats. "This is an outrageous attempt to undo what we did last fall," said Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., ranking member of the Transportation Committee. Added Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.: "God forbid we grant an extension and [later] there is a bombing on a plane. I want my baggage checked-now."

There's also a possible political angle to this particular dispute: As the November elections draw closer, Democrats will likely seek to score points on the deadline extension by portraying the GOP as soft on airport security. Indeed, Democratic National Committee spokesman Bill Buck noted that with this extension, the Republicans seemed to be putting the concerns of the airports and airlines "over the safety of the American flying public."

In addition to the blame games over funding and the baggage-screening deadline, the TSA has increasingly become a punching bag for its critics. Congress and aviation interests have complained that the new agency has failed to communicate with them and has moved too slowly to meet its deadlines. Moreover, many were disappointed that the TSA ruled against the proposal allowing pilots to carry guns in the cockpit and also against plans to introduce a "trusted-traveler" card that would help frequent fliers move quicker through security checkpoints.

All of that criticism made it easier for Mineta to fire TSA Director Magaw on July 18. Capt. Duane E. Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, contends that Magaw was a disaster. "So many projects were lost in the bureaucracy of the TSA," he said.

Mineta replaced Magaw with Adm. James M. Loy, who had served as commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. Insiders say that Loy has already developed a quality that his predecessor lacked: good relations with Congress.

"He clearly knows how to handle the congressional side of things," said airport lobbyist Todd Hauptli. In fact, at his appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee last week, Loy told senators that he would communicate better with the airlines and airports than Magaw did. Loy also announced that he'll take another look at the issues of guns in the cockpit and the trusted-traveler plan.

During all the finger-pointing at the hearings last week, however, no one took a more brutal beating than Mineta. On the House side, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., skewered the secretary for trying to deflect criticism by first firing Magaw and then by blaming appropriators.

"This is unbelievable to me," DeFazio said. "I'm just really upset at your performance here today."

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Ron Wyden, D-Ore., argued that Magaw's firing didn't reflect well on Mineta. "It clearly does not send a message that the administration is on top of this issue," he said. Wyden also attacked Mineta over recent reports about airport security breaches.

Unfortunately for Mineta, with the key deadlines just months away, things aren't going to get any easier. The TSA is supposed to deploy an estimated 33,000 federal screeners and supervisors by November 19. Yet according to the Transportation Department's inspector general, the TSA had trained and deployed only 2,500 screeners as of July 13. With less than four months left, the TSA will need to hire and train more than 7,600 per month to meet the deadline. (The agency, however, says it has already hired nearly 8,000 screeners.)

In addition, the TSA needs to deploy an estimated 1,100 explosive-detection (EDS) machines and 6,000 trace systems to meet the December 31 baggage-screening deadline. But as of July 9, only 215 EDS and 273 trace machines were in use at airports.

The good news for Mineta is that the TSA won't be his responsibility forever, because Congress is working diligently to move the agency next year into the proposed Homeland Security Department. Still, Mineta and the TSA have a lot of work to do to meet the upcoming deadlines.

As McCain explained last week, "The road ahead is likely to be even rougher than the one already traveled." And if that's the case, expect the blame game to continue.