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Security Cutbacks Worry Airport Officials
Big article at the (sometimes believable) NYT, registration required. Just the highlights here.The odds of breezing through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas could soon become worse than those of hitting the jackpot at the Bellagio, if airport officials are to be believed. With 983 federal security screeners assigned to the airport, travelers still have to wait at checkpoints for up to an hour during crunch times. So things can only get worse, airport officials argue, when the Transportation Security Administration, under budgetary pressure, carries out its plans starting this month to cut 15 percent of the screening work force. As the summer travel season approaches, the Transportation Security Administration is planning to cut 6,000 of the 55,600 full-time screeners. The agency, created by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, intends to make half its cuts by the end of this month and the rest by the end of September, said Brian Turmail, an agency spokesman. Some smaller airports, meanwhile, will get extra screeners as jobs are shifted from city to city. The agency said it was winnowing its work force to meet a hiring cap set by Congress. Some lawmakers and security experts support the move, arguing that taxpayer money could be better spent protecting other potential targets. The fact that terrorists hijacked planes on Sept. 11, the critics say, does not mean that that is now the most likely avenue of attack. You can read the rest; the usual pious moaning from various "experts" and all. Posted by: Steve White 2003-05-22 |
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