Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations - Transportation Security Administration

3/15/2011

House Appropriations Committee - Homeland Security Subcommittee

Chairman Aderholt and Ranking Member Price and distinguished Committee Members:

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), representing several thousand Transportation Security Officers (TSOs or Officers), is pleased to present its views on the FY 2012 budget for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), as submitted by President Obama. We believe the budget provides for the layers of security this administration has developed to make sure that the traveling American public is safe. The President’s budget provides for an additional 2,275 TSOs and an extra 350 Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs). It provides for an additional 12 Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams. The budget calls for funds to sustain the deployment of 900 canine teams at the nation’s airports. In addition, it requests funds for 275 more Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines and the staff to run the machines. NTEU does have some reservations about the reduction in screening technology maintenance, however, especially since most of TSA’s equipment uses radiation to scan passengers and baggage.

Recent proposed budgets by the majority party would result in serious gaps in security, necessitating delays in equipment upgrades and reduced staffing. Enactment of legislation similar to HR 1 would result in cutting the number of AIT machines and the staff to run the machines by one-half. There would be drastic cuts in Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) updates (important because over 800 of these machines are about to exceed their planned ten-year service life). Canine teams would be cut by half. There would be longer wait times at the airports. Science and technology research would stop — innovations in process now that could again allow shoes left on and water bottles in would not be completed. It would take security at the airports backwards.

2012 BUDGET CONCERNS

As you consider the 2012 budget, we would like to focus attention on matters that are of concern to our officers and ask for your help in addressing these concerns as you finalize your TSA budget for the next fiscal year.

STAFFING

Better analysis needs to be done on the staffing levels at our major airports. There are simply not enough people at the right times. Management by crisis often results in baggage staff being called onto checkpoints when lines get long, and then sent back to baggage where the pile-ups result in bags not reaching their final destination at the same time as their owners. This happens on a routine basis. The flights come in at around the same time every week. Why is the staffing level inadequate? In addition, in some airports the arrival of the AIT machines was not accompanied by an increase in staffing, despite the fact that the AITs require five staff members to run each one of them. Our officers have to deal with a testy public who sees the machines idle while the lines increase. This needs to be corrected.

TRAINING

TSA must standardize and improve training and remediation efforts. Given the importance of their jobs, it is hard to believe that the training system at TSA is as haphazard as it is. Most of the training is online, without benefit of the experience of a more senior officer. Often, the training center is far from the actual workplace, and training often happens on the employee’s own time. Training and testing on image recognition do not reflect real life conditions, rendering it ineffective and sometimes useless. When tests are done in baggage screening, the results are not shared with the testees. They may be told they have flunked, but they are not told why, or what they missed, or how to do a better job the next time. Before the annual recertification tests, (the PSEs), there is always a rush to train. Again, the training is often inadequate. Standard Operating Procedure at one airport is not the same as at another. During the last round of PSEs, there were many arguments about whether a person had passed the test or not. Your help in making sure that TSA provides adequate training is requested.

PAY

The pay system at TSA, the Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS) must be eliminated. Every year, when the PASS payouts have been distributed, my office is flooded with calls from TSOs who are surprised and confused about how their ratings were determined and demoralized by the arbitrary nature of the payments. In addition, since most of the workforce has very low base salaries, the “merit” increases are insignificant. The yearly certification test, upon which part of PASS is based, fails to measure an officer’s true on-the-job performance and skills and needs to be completely rethought. We believe that TSOs should be under the same General Schedule system as most other federal employees.

UNIFORM ALLOWANCE

TSA’s uniform allowance is inadequate: $300 per year, when shoes alone are $99. We request that you include in the FY 2012 budget a provision increasing the uniform allowance to $1,000.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We note that DHS would like to increase the $2.50 “9/11” fee imposed on each plane encampment as a result of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (Pub. L. 107-71) to $4.00. This fee was created to help fund the TSA, and it has not increased since 2002. We believe it is prudent to raise the fee. TSA has matured as an agency, and costs have increased as threats increase and technology has advanced. Arguments made by the airlines that this would somehow stop people from flying are disingenuous, particularly when they are charging for bags and pillows and blankets and food and legroom. There is no competitive disadvantage when every airline has to charge the same fee.

Administrator Pistole’s decision to allow limited collective bargaining at TSA has energized our officers. These officers wanted representation in order to combat arbitrary actions by supervisors, to create a more transparent system of performance evaluations, and a grievance procedure that will put an end to selective discipline. The Administrator recognized that morale at TSA was a serious problem, and we applaud his decision. In addition, NTEU agrees with the Administrator that the prudent course in regard to the Security Screening Program is to cease approving applications.

Finally, NTEU implores the committee to use any power it has to fund TSA for the entire fiscal year. A nation simply cannot fight terrorism in short-term chunks of money. TSA is working to stop future threats, but it cannot do so when it cannot commit funds.