Senators decry slow progress on passenger screening projects

Senate lawmakers on Thursday vented their frustration about the implementation of two contentious security initiatives to pre-screen airline passengers and move frequent fliers through airport checkpoints more quickly.

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on transportation security, lawmakers said they are not satisfied with the slow development of the programs, which were authorized after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Secure Flight, a system to pre-screen passengers and identify terrorist threats, generated the most criticism. Lawmakers also expressed concern about Registered Traveler, an initiative to accelerate screening for frequent passengers.

Mississippi Republican Trent Lott said that too much time and money has been invested in the programs for them not to be ready for full deployment. "Let's do some of these programs or forget them," he said.

He added that both programs have been funded adequately and that a proposal by President Bush to increase passenger security fees on one-way flights is unnecessary to fund them.

Transportation Security Administration Director Kip Hawley acknowledged that the slow rollout of the programs, particularly Secure Flight, has been a source of frustration. But he said a comprehensive audit would be necessary to review the Secure Flight system, further delaying its full deployment.

"My priority is to do it right and not just to do it quickly," he said.

The Government Accountability Office issued a report last March that cited several shortcomings in Secure Flight. Cathleen Berrick, the director of homeland security and justice at GAO, told the committee that TSA still does not have a firm grasp on changes it needs to make to the program.

Berrick also noted that the process whereby passengers with clean records who are erroneously flagged as security risks can remove themselves from watch lists has not been adequately defined.

Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson said he is particularly concerned about difficulties that passengers with generic names can encounter in removing themselves from watch lists. The fact that numerous harmless passengers have been wrongly identified suggests that Secure Flight has been flawed since its conception, he said.

Montana Republican Conrad Burns echoed Nelson's concerns about watch lists and said he was irked when one of his friends discovered his name was flagged. "The only place this guy is dangerous is on a golf course," Burns said.

Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said it is alarming that his wife could be stopped at security checkpoints because her name is similar to Cat Stevens, a Muslim singer who was placed on a no-fly list because of his alleged connections to a militant religious group.

Timothy Sparapani, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Registered Traveler's application process raises additional privacy concerns. He said it is dangerous that no one appears to know what happens to the names of passengers who are denied entry to the program and whether a separate no-fly list is created with those names.

The ACLU has repeatedly urged an end to both Secure Flight and Registered Traveler. "It's time for Congress to decide enough is enough," Sparapani said.