The problem has grown to such an extent that the Port Authority has threatened to hire private security screeners to replace TSA workers.
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A record number of travelers, the busy summer travel season, and a shortage of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are to blame, according to the TSA.
In addition, the agency will deploy 11 teams of bomb-sniffing dogs in order to expedite screening and is working with the airport’s largest airline, United, to open a Pre-Check enrollment desk in Terminal C. Pre-Check offers passengers a chance to bypass regular security lines if they pay a fee and undergo a background check.
That’s the word from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which posted on Twitter Monday night that “Kelly Hoggan has been removed from his position as head of security at TSA”. TSA officers would randomly pick passengers from the regular security line and place them into the Pre-Check checkpoints, even if they were not a Pre-Check member.
U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker and fellow Democratic U.S. Pep.
The committee says Hoggan received more than $90,000 in bonuses between November 2013 and November 2014, “despite significant security vulnerabilities”.
“While tight airport security procedures are clearly necessary, we can not accept travelers enduring unreasonable and excruciating, two-hour-long lines just to get through check points”, said U.S. Sen.
The TSA needs 5,400 more screeners at checkpoints, Bidwell said. “We can not accept travelers enduring unreasonable and excruciating 2 hour long lines just to get through checkpoints”.
Make sure you’re getting to the airport early enough.
As a combination of lower fares, more flights and a strong economy has boosted the numbers of people flying, two- and three-hour delays in security screening lines on domestic flights have drawn the ire of travelers.
“I think this summer is going to continue to be a challenge”, he said at a news conference at O’Hare International Airport.
This week, Congress approved million in additional funding for the Transportation Security Administration.
The Homeland Security Inspector General previously revealed that agency employees failed to find unsafe items in more than 95 percent of covert tests at multiple USA airports.
“The dog is essentially an explosives trace detection machine that we can use without having to touch people”, said Douglas Timberlake, a canine handler at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on the TSA website.
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The TSA has 36,263 full-time and 9,822 part-time officers, it said.
