TSA Boss: Airport Lines Will 'Continue To Be A Challenge' This Summer
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The head of the Transportation Security Administration on Friday warned travelers there are no quick fixes to the problems that have led to gargantuan lines at airport security at Chicago's airports as the summer travel season is ramping up.
TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger apologized in person to Chicagoans for dropping the ball over the last couple weeks, when airport security checkpoints were overwhelmed with travelers, causing hundreds of people to miss flights.
Neffenger said more staff is being added at O'Hare and Midway airports, but there is no quick fix.
"I think this summer is going to continue to be a challenge. We've got passenger growth. I haven't grown back as much staff as I need, but I think we're doing everything we can to mitigate that at the largest airports," he said. "I think you'll still see crowds in airports, but my goal is to keep you moving. We can't have a situation like we had here in Chicago again."
Neffenger met with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Den. Dick Durbin, several other members of congress, and top airline officials on Friday to discuss how delays at airport security checkpoints have affected Chicago's airports.
Emanuel said TSA staffing at O'Hare and Midway, at best, is at about 60 percent of capacity, a situation he called "unacceptable given what the [travel] volume is, especially going into the summer."
The mayor said TSA officials should have seen the recent problems coming, given the agency significantly reduced staff over the past three years – largely because it expected high demand for its PreCheck expedited screening program – and increasing travel volumes due to lower fares offered by the airlines. PreCheck has proven far less popular than expected, but TSA has not significantly beefed up security staffing in response.
"This was always avoidable. It was knowable and it was avoidable," Emanuel said.
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Some Chicago aldermen have called for replacing TSA security officers with private security at Chicago's airports by joining the federal Screening Partnership Program, which already is used in San Francisco and Kansas City.
However, Emanuel has flip-flopped on the possibility of privatizing airport security in Chicago.
On Tuesday, the mayor seemed to shoot down the idea, saying TSA has the responsibility for making sure airports are safe, and that there needs to be a coherent national system for airport security.
"They [TSA] need to get ahead of it," the mayor said at the time.
The next day, after four powerful aldermen introduced a resolution calling on the Emanuel administration to join the TSA Screening Partnership Program, the mayor seemed to warm to the idea, calling it "a tool in the toolbox."
But the mayor apparently slammed the door on airport security privatization on Friday, saying it would take too long.
"If you were to say, 'Okay, we're going to go privatize,' which ultimately still works for TSA, it's about two years before you get there. So the answers right now, for right now – May to June to July to August – sit with TSA and making sure that we're properly staffed, properly funded, and have all the resources deployed both at O'Hare and Midway," he said. "In the end of the day, TSA is responsible for staffing the security. That is what they are funded (to do), and that is their mission."
The TSA already has pledged to increase staffing in Chicago this summer to relieve wait times at security checkpoints. The agency will send 58 new security officers and four extra bomb-sniffing canine teams to O'Hare by the end of May. In addition, 100 current part-time TSA officers at O'Hare and Midway will soon be moved to full-time duty to help during peak travel hours. By August, 250 new officers will be added to the airports. Authorized overtime will be tripled.
Emanuel promised to hold Neffenger's feet to the fire this summer to make sure TSA follows through with that additional staffing.
"We're going to, every other week, put out an accountability scorecard to see are we maintaining the canine units that you promised? Are we having the full-time staff that we were promised? Are we converting part-time to full time? And are we doing the overtime, and what is that measure, and then what ultimately does that lead to for the public in the sense of time," Emanuel said.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Congress needs to approve more money for the TSA to hire more full-time screeners.
"Some of the things that we have done in Congress to cap the number of screeners, to limit the resources available to this agency are unfair," Durbin said
Durbin also said more Americans need to sign up for the TSA PreCheck program, which allows for expedited screening, but he said the procedures for people to enroll need to be more customer-friendly.
He said the TSA might be re-bidding the contract for security companies that would handle TSA PreCheck applicants, to find another company that can do it more efficiently.
