Posted on: Thursday, August 22, 2002

ISLAND VOICES
Be reasonable at airports

By Dr. Richard R. Kelley
Chairman of Outrigger Enterprises Inc.

This summer I have been through a number of airports and have been pleased to see tourists, families and business travelers once again filling the corridors and concourses. However, there is a political storm brewing in Washington that could drastically impede air travel across the nation if the momentum of government, once set in motion, is allowed to run its course, without any further thought or necessary "mid-course corrections."

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the president and Congress created the Transportation Security Administration as an arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation and directed it to federalize screening and security in the nation's 429 commercial airports by the end of this year. The TSA was given $2 billion for its operations and the authority to hire 28,000 workers by Nov. 19, 2002. Congress also directed the TSA to install bomb-detection machines to screen baggage at all airports by Dec. 31.

As sometimes happens, Congress did not fully understand what it was doing when it passed that legislation. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta recently testified that, under the leadership of its chief, John Magaw, the TSA has spent all of its initial funding plus millions of additional dollars redirected from other agencies. Mineta says the TSA will need nearly 70,000 full-time security employees and an additional $3 billion in emergency funding to do the job it was ordered to do by the end of this year.

Unfortunately, there are many horror stories about the TSA. Highly paid consultants have been swooping down on airports, often with conflicting instructions. There have been turf battles among the TSA, FBI, airport police, city police and airline security personnel. Costly equipment is being ordered and sites prepared even though there are serious doubts as to whether, with today's technology, the screening devices can effectively identify baggage containing explosives without creating horrendous lines of waiting passengers and constant flight delays.

At airport terminals, instead of focusing on those with a more likely terrorist profile, screeners give the same treatment to all.

Magaw resigned — or was fired — about three weeks ago, but the machinery of government rolls on. The Wall Street Journal reports that airline industry officials have complained about the TSA's screening practices, including instances in which passengers have been forced to partially disrobe. Terminals at Los Angeles International Airport were shut down three times in July alone over items such as a suspicious bag and a belt buckle.

Meanwhile, the new federal security surcharges are averaging about $7 per passenger. Air marshals are riding in first class, with no reimbursement to the airlines. Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune stated, "We are literally being crushed by our own government."

To top it all off, with these security deadlines looming and the first anniversary of Sept. 11 just around the corner, Congress has gone off on a month-long summer holiday. Our lawmakers will not return to work until Sept. 3 and hope to adjourn one month later (to campaign for re-election on their great accomplishments) on Oct. 4.

With Hawai'i's travel and tourism industry — not to mention the nation's economy — so dependent on a convenient, efficient and secure air transport system, let's hope that, after four weeks of rest and reflection, Congress will delay the rush toward federalization of airport security and the implementation of an unworkable baggage screening system. Fortunately, they now appear to be considering extending the deadline, to avoid the nightmare of having to open and visually inspect bags one by one if the machinery isn't installed and working well by Dec. 31.

What really needs to be done is to apply serious cost-benefit analysis to all proposed security measures. When we travel, we want to be safe, of course, but expensive, "feel-good" measures that do little to deter terrorists, yet severely inconvenience and discourage travelers, snarling the nation's air transport system, simply make no sense.