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New Year brings new luggage checks'Travelers are better protected than they have ever been'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration's countdown to the new year is also a countdown to the midnight Tuesday deadline for the TSA to be screening all checked bags for explosives at the nation's airports. Adm. James Loy, who heads the TSA, called it a "huge accomplishment" in large part because the TSA is barely a year old, having been established in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. "With this additional layer of security in place, airports and air travelers are better protected than they have ever been," said Loy, who is undersecretary of transportation for security. Before September 11, 2001, only 5 percent of bags were being checked at the nation's commercial airports. By midnight Tuesday, all bags will be checked. More than 90 percent will be screened by expensive bomb-detection systems called EDS that use CAT scan technology or by hand-held devices called EDT that swab for traces of explosives on bags. In addition, the TSA will use canine teams, hand searches and passenger-bag matching to screen the 2 million pieces of luggage checked on average each day. TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said passengers should come to the airport prepared for the increased security measures. "Security is no longer a spectator sport, you can't ... show up at the airport late, go on auto pilot thinking this is going to be just a hunky dory experience," he said. The TSA worked with the nation's 429 airports to develop individual plans for screening all bags, an agency news release said. Ninety percent will fully implement their plans by Tuesday's deadline, Loy said. A handful will use temporary methods until more efficient systems can be put in place next year, he said, mostly "inline" equipment that can screen bags as they move from check-in to airplane.
Fewer still, Loy said, were given extensions and will not have automated systems in place by midnight. Those airports will be allowed to use bag matching, dogs and hand searches to complete the task during peak travel times. Regardless of the method, Loy said, all bags will be checked. He did not divulge which airports would not meet the deadline. Last month, 174 airports sent a letter to Congress saying they would have trouble meeting the deadline. They included some of the nation's largest that handle the vast majority of the nation's luggage -- among them Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle. President Bush signed the Aviation Transportation Security Act creating the TSA on November 19, 2001. In late January, the TSA had just 13 employees; now there are 158 federal security directors, thousands of federal air marshals, and some 56,000 security screeners. The deadline to screen all bags was the last of 36 deadlines Congress put in place for the TSA, the agency said. The estimated cost of setting up the program nationwide is between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, Loy has said.
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