Bill would delay bag screening deadline

Some lawmakers and airport executives worry that passenger wait times could balloon if airports are forced to meet a December 31 baggage screening deadline.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Texas Republican introduced legislation Tuesday that would allow some U.S. airports to delay meeting what many say is the unrealistic deadline of December 31 for all of the nation's 429 commercial airports to be able to screen all checked baggage.

Rep. Kay Granger, a member of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, said three-hour lines could become the norm around the Christmas holiday as some airports struggle with make-shift solutions to meet the deadline.

The Bush administration opposes extending the deadline. Granger's bill is the first legislation introduced in Congress to do so.

Granger's bill would require airports to notify the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the federal agency in charge of airport security, by November 1 if they can't make the deadline. By December 1, those airports would have to present a published plan detailing when they would be able to screen all bags and how they would do it.

"Seventy-five percent of the airports will meet the deadline," said Granger. "Most airports can make it. For those who can't, what is the solution for them? This is the solution."

Executives from Dallas/Fort Worth and Seattle airports, meeting in Washington, have said they don't have enough time to complete costly construction projects to house the very large and bulky bomb detection machines used to screen bags.

THE SYSTEM Airport security: A system driven by the minimum wage PREVIOUS WARNINGS Warnings over airport security preceded attacks COMPARING U.S. TO EUROPE Outside the U.S., a different approach to air security SOLUTIONS Boosting security puts focus on government's role  GRAPHS & CHARTS  • Top 25 Airports  • Airport Security by Year  • Airline Security by Year  • Airport Wages

At the DFW Airport, airport CEO Jeff Fegan said, checked bags would have to be screened in the small area by the ticket counters. That would force passengers out onto the airport sidewalk.

"DFW Airport is a huge airport," said Fegan. "Four terminal buildings. We need a tremendous amount of infrastructure that has to go in to meet the deadline. And I think we are just simply running out of time."

Gina Marie Lindsey, managing director of aviation for the Port of Seattle, which operates SEATAC, the Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, said, "This year-end deadline is really diverting us and the TSA, in my opinion, from looking at the ultimate long-term solution, which in many places will have to be an in-line explosive system in order to make it feasible to process passengers."

An in-line system would allow bags to be placed on the baggage belt at ticket counters and then go directly through the baggage screening machines.

Asked Monday about airport executives' concerns that the bag deadline could result in long passenger waits, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Monday, "I think that's just a swag and so to that extent I don't think that will be the case."

Despite his early warning that the December 31 deadline was unworkable, Mineta is now unwavering in his commitment to meeting that goal. To make sure that happens, the TSA is putting a mix of two different machines in airports, including 1,100 explosive detection machines -- the large, bulky EDS machines that cost $1 million each -- and 4,800 trace detection machines, which use a wand to go over and inside of the luggage for traces of explosive residue. Congress originally envisioned using only EDS machines.

Trace detection is more time consuming and the airport executives worry it could back up bags and cause waits. It requires more workers as well.

Fegan estimates DFW will need 2,700 security personnel to man the checkpoints and bomb detection equipment, almost three times the number of employees the airport needed before the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"We understand that there are about 50 people in training right now. ... We are very concerned that they can hire enough people and train them, and do all the background checks, between now and the end of this year," Fegan said.

The TSA said last week it had hired approximately 3,000 screeners.

Opponents of delaying the deadline say it's too soon to cry uncle. They want the TSA and airports to be given more time to try to meet the deadline before declaring it can't be met.

Congress set the December 31 bag screening deadline in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed after the September 11 terror attacks.