ATLANTA — The first ever collective bargaining agreement between the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) “is putting the safety and security of American passengers at risk,” a Tennessee Republican congresswoman warned.
The new agreement, touted by TSA Administrator John S. Pistole as “a milestone in our relationship with our workforce and AFGE,” allows “federal unions to claim a greater stake in dictating our national security,” U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn said. “Instead of focusing on the traveling public the TSA is doubling down on fulfilling the demands of rank and file union members.”
Blackburn’s remarks are the latest in a long line of stinging criticism for the federal agency.
In June, U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., suggested dismantling the TSA, a move he said would have saved taxpayers more than $5.5 billion; his push fell short. In May, Broun asked John Pistole, administrator of the TSA, to resign, saying in a letter the federal agency “has become nothing more than a bloated, broken bureaucracy.”
The agency’s Inspector General (IG) also recently found shortcomings in the TSA’s procedures, standards and oversight at Honolulu International Airport in 2010.
“Congress originally intended the TSA to be in the mold of the CIA and FBI. Their employees were supposed to remain vigilant 24/7 to thwart the next terrorist attack on U.S. soil,” Blackburn said. “Unfortunately, the TSA is only perpetuating a charade as a premier federal agency as they continue to fail to perform background checks on their employees, provide inadequate levels of basic security training and are not seriously focused on reprimanding or retraining screeners who receive failing grades in detecting threats.
“The collective bargaining agreement will also double the annual uniform allowance and permit new uniform variations to account for weather,” the congresswoman added. “If our Transportation Security Officers, who have zero federal law enforcement training, would return to our nation’s climate controlled airports and work within their Congressionally established roles of screeners and processors they wouldn’t need to worry about the weather. Instead the TSA is continuing to let their employees take the appearance of federal law enforcement officers and is unleashing them onto our nation’s highways, subways, trains and buses against the unsuspecting public.”
