In the past, a few congressmen like Rep. John Mica (R-FL) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) have been thorns in the side of TSA. They have raged against the giant bureaucracy that the agency has become and the invasiveness of TSA searches. Today, other members of Congress from the Senate and House are joining the anti-TSA crowd.
Moreso, bills are being considered that will force TSA to change the way it behaves, how it is perceived and how it interacts with the public.
We all know that the media has been overflowing with stories about TSA harassing senior citizens. One woman in was given the TSA once-over for refusing to go through the whole-body scanner because of her heart defibrillator. An 88-year-old woman had her colostomy bag poked and prodded. Another, claimed that she was strip searched. Yet, another, was not allowed through security because her wet adult diapers set off alarms.
Even as they arduously bicker among themselves over tax issues, our politicians can hear the cries of constituents being mistreated by TSA. Most of the time, complainers get a polite letter and TSA gets a congressional query that they must answer, but, up until this point, there has been little actual congressional action.
With that raft of passenger complaints, especially when every one of the complainers could have been someone’s grandmother, there has been (gasp) bipartisan action to reign in TSA and these insensitive brutish searches.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is calling for TSA advocates to be available to passengers who feel they are being harassed at airport checkpoints and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has filed a bill to strip TSA agents of their police, law-enforcement style uniforms since (surprised?) TSA is not a law enforcement agency.
In the case of Schumer’s recent letter to TSA requesting the training and appointment of advocates at screening sits in airports, the Senator is waiting for TSA response. So far, TSA has announced an 800 number for complaints, but nothing for passengers in the midst of what they consider harassment. The Consumer Travel Alliance met with staffers at the Senate Judiciary Committee who indicated they may be filing a bill that would force TSA to take action on passenger advocates or specialists in complaint resolution to be stationed at each TSA inspection area.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn has already introduced a bill together with more than 20 co-sponsors, HR 3608, that is short and sweet. This Act may be cited as the “Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy Act” or the “STRIP Act.”
The Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) shall prohibit any employee of the Transportation Security Administration who has not received Federal law enforcement training or is not eligible for Federal law enforcement benefits from–
(1) using the official job title of ‘officer’; or
(2) wearing a metal badge resembling a police badge or a uniform resembling the uniform of a Federal law enforcement officer.
In other words, the Blackburn bill will strip TSA of their right to wear police-like uniforms and law-enforcement-like badges.
TSA unions are already in an uproar saying that the bill is “petty” and “ridiculous.” The unions are also howling about its consequences — “inspiring the type of unnecessary and disrespectful behavior by a few members of the public.”
Interestingly, TSA, on their own website, has an excellent interactive description of the changes in their uniforms over the years. The Blackburn bill would roll back the uniforms to more or less those that TSA originally wore.
After meeting this week with Rep. Blackburn’s staff, the Consumer Travel Alliance informed the Representative’s office of their support for this bill.
The consumer organization also encouraged both Schumer’s and Blackburn’s office to find some way to combine their approaches to reigning in TSA with a joint bill that could be introduced in both the Senate and House on a bipartisan basis.
Photo: Courtesy TSA
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
