Senator seeks performance-based airport security system

Civil service rules would not stop a federally run airport security system from making quick hires or firing poor performers under legislation introduced by Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., on Thursday. Thompson's proposal came as public administration experts questioned the government's ability to manage a federalized airport security system. Thompson's measure would amend the Senate airport security bill (S. 1447) to allow a new federal airport security office housed in the Federal Aviation Administration to make quick personnel changes and offer performance bonuses to top employees. In return, the airport security system and its employees, including baggage screeners, would be held to strict performance standards. The amendment is designed to make the airport security system conform to the principles of performance management regardless of whether baggage screeners are federal or contract employees, according to Thompson. If Congress and the Bush administration decide to let contractors perform screening functions, the amendment contains language encouraging the FAA to use performance-based contracts to regulate screeners. Thompson crafted his amendment because the Senate bill contains no performance standards, according to a Senate Republican staffer. "The senator's view is, basically, 'What assurance do we have of increased security if these [baggage screeners] are federal employees compared to private employees?' The answer is nothing unless you require strict adherence to performance standards in advance," said the staffer. Thompson introduced his amendment as several public administration experts said that federalizing the entire airport security system would create a massive management problem for the Bush administration. The Department of Transportation has estimated a federal takeover of screening would create 28,000 new federal jobs, marking the biggest expansion of government since Lyndon Johnson's increase in domestic programs in the 1960s, according to Donald Kettl, a scholar with the University of Wisconsin's LaFollette Institute of Public Affairs. "We'd have to define what kind of people we want, we'd have to find and recruit them, we'd have to train them to the new standards, and then we'd have to retain them," said Kettl. "We'll be hiring these folks for months," added Paul Light, a scholar with the Brookings Institution. The Bush administration's draft airport security plan, which would allow contract employees to screen baggage under the supervision of federal managers, should yield the same security benefits as complete federalization and is much easier to implement, according to Kettl and Robert Agresta, vice president of Star Mountain Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm. "The degree of oversight that the proposal builds in--performed by federal employees--is appropriate and their visible presence should ease the concerns of air travelers," said Agresta. The Bush plan would also station a federal law enforcement officer at every checkpoint, set performance standards for baggage screeners and make the government perform background checks on all screeners. After an 18-month trial period, the Transportation Secretary would decide on an airport-by-airport basis if contract employees should continue to screen baggage or whether the screening should be shifted to federal employees. The Bush plan requires the secretary to consider the views of the Transportation Department's inspector general in making this decision. While the Senate bill proposes to vest airport security duties in the FAA, Bush would create a new agency within the Transportation Department, the Transportation Security Administration, to administer his security program. The government would have more flexibility to dismiss poor performers if contract employees perform the screening function, according to the Bush plan. "Permitting the use of contract employees where appropriate will preserve greater flexibility for the federal government to impose standards and to discipline or remove screeners who are not performing up to expectations," said the plan. Public-private partnerships can be an effective tool for providing security, but this point is getting lost in the debate over federalization, according to some experts. Contractors provide security at the nation's nuclear laboratories, noted Allan Burman, president of Jefferson Solutions, a Washington consulting firm. And the inspection function performed by baggage screeners has long been considered a commercial activity under Office of Management and Budget guidance on "inherently governmental" functions, according to Agresta. "Some [members of Congress] have leaped to the view that screeners are really law enforcement officials, like sky marshals, and are clearly inherently governmental," he said. "In reality, the inspection function that screeners perform has a long history of contract performance."