Word: tsa
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...shooting rang other bells for Baumgartner. For months he has been wrangling with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the new federal agency in charge of the nation's air security, over the baggage-screening machines the TSA has ordered to be in operation at all 429 U.S. airports by the end of the year. Denver will ultimately need 50 of these bulky machines, which weigh 10,000 lbs. apiece and stand about five feet high, and the TSA wants them placed in the main terminal, next to the ticket counters. The mere thought of this makes Baumgartner's fleshy face...
...Baumgartner and his team know they have a pretty efficient system in Denver, and they aren't happy about their new federal overlords. First, there are the logistical headaches caused by the TSA's demand for 17,000 sq. ft. of office space at the airport to house what will eventually be a force of nearly 2,000 people in three rotating shifts. Baumgartner wants to charge the going rate of $72 per sq. ft.; the TSA complains that's too steep for a federal agency already stretched thin. "You can't just walk 2,000 people into an airport...
...disputes have gone beyond such bureaucratic tussles. Take those baggage-screening machines. Baumgartner complains that the explosive-detection system (EDS) machines selected by the TSA are too finicky, slow and error prone. Last winter Baumgartner hired his own consultants to look into bag-screening technology, and they chose a device made by a German manufacturer, Heimann. The TSA's machine tests for density but can't tell for sure whether the suspicious mass is explosives or chocolate, whereas the Heimann machine uses a more sophisticated X-ray method that can make such distinctions by computer. The Heimann machine is capable...
...Until there are enough EDS machines to handle all bags, the TSA wants to supplement them with smaller trace machines, microwave-size devices that can detect explosives by testing a cloth that has swabbed the luggage. But these devices have problems too. They require two to three times as much staff as the EDS machines, and security experts say they are highly unreliable unless used according to strict protocols. As TIME watched a Denver screener operate one of the trace machines, he had to punch it several times just to get it to register a clear signal...
...Much of the problem, in the view of Baumgartner, is the rush to have some bag-screening system-any bag-screening system-in place by the congressionally mandated deadline of Dec. 31. He is one of 39 airport managers who sent a letter to the TSA on May 29 appealing for the deadline to be extended. The message may have finally got through to Congress; Representative Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, will introduce a bill this week that will give airports more flexibility in meeting bag-screening requirements and allow them to come up with individualized plans...