How To Prevent Future Air Security Debacles – OpEd |
U.S. airline passengers had good reason to be upset by the long, slow-moving lines at airport security checkpoints last month. Fortunately, the chaos is over—at least for now.
President Trump ordered government officials to effectively shuffle funds from one government account to another to ensure that Transportation Security Administration employees were paid.
This resolved the immediate problem, but the underlying cause remains: our near-total reliance on government transportation security officers to inspect luggage and screen passengers at most of America’s commercial airports.
To avoid a replay, we need to be asking more fundamental questions about the federal government’s oversize role in airport security and whether better alternatives exist. (Hint: They do.)
As most Americans know, the Department of Homeland Security was created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Before that, local airport operating agencies, such as the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International........