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Within House Republicans' newly introduced Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Reorganization Act of 2005 are several important provisions intended to level the playing field among airport operators, private firms and federal officials in providing better aviation security.
In essence, Rep. Dan Lungren's bill (H.R. 4439), which he introduced at a Dec. 7 press briefing in Washington, echoes some familiar GOP themes of decentralized decision-making and greater private-sector involvement. By forcing TSA to act a little more like a profit-motivated corporation, while strengthening the hand of other stakeholders, Lundgren and his GOP colleagues on the House Homeland Security Committee hope to make the business of aviation security more competitive, and thus more effective, accountable, and less costly.
"TSA must be strategic in protecting our transportation systems, and this bill will help the agency adopt a business-like approach and implement state-of-the-art transportation security initiatives to ensure effective and efficient screening procedures," said Lundren, who chairs the panel's Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity. While several Republicans are co-sponsoring the bill, no Democrats have initially signed on as co-sponsors.
H.R. 4439 would encourage more private-sector investment in "cutting-edge" transportation security systems and encourage state and local governments and federal contractors to compete with TSA in providing the "highest possible level of airport security," committee Republican staff said.
"Exhibit A" in this makeover of TSA would be the creation of a new department called the Airport Screening Organization, which would take over the day-to-day management of passenger and bag screening in those airports that retain federally managed screeners. The goal in creating the new department would be to separate what some agency critics have seen as TSA's conflicting roles as a direct service provider and as a federal regulator of those same services.
In this case, however, the new department would not be entirely separate from TSA. So, the tasks of hiring and assigning screeners, on the one hand, and making sure screener performance complies with federal regulations, on the other, would still come under TSA head Kip Hawley's authority.
Hawley, in fact, would appoint the department's head, to be known as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). H.R. 4439 states that the COO's responsibilities would be confined to "operational activities and shall not include any regulatory or...