[Infowarrior] - GOP bill would dress down TSA

[Richard Forno]

GOP bill would dress down TSA

By BURGESS EVERETT | 12/9/11 12:18 PM EST Updated: 12/9/11 2:48 PM EST

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70185.html

House Republicans have a message for Transportation Security Administration employees: You may look like cops and dress like cops, but you’re not the cops.

The Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy, or STRIP, Act introduced Thursday, would prohibit TSA employees “who have not received federal law enforcement training” from using the title of “officer,” as well as bar them from wearing uniforms and badges resembling those of law enforcement officers.

Several recent high-profile incidents have drawn outrage from lawmakers, such as recent claims by an 85-year-old woman that she was strip-searched by TSA employees in New York and a 2010 pat-down of a screaming toddler in Chattanooga, Tenn.

In 2005, the TSA changed the title of security screeners to that of “officer”; in 2008 officers transitioned from a white uniform to a blue one with a metallic badge.

“It is outrageous that in a post 9/11 world that the American people should have to live in fear of those whose job it is to keep us safe,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the bill’s lead sponsor, said in a statement. “The least we can do is end this impersonation which is an insult to real cops.”

The TSA does not comment on pending legislation, but issued a statement defending its efforts to protect travelers and explaining the gradual changes in TSA uniforms.

“As part of the organization's continued efforts to transition the workforce to a cadre of well-trained, professional transportation security officers, TSA introduced uniforms more reflective of the critical nature of their work and of the high standards they uphold. Whether in airports, mass transit facilities or other transportation modes, TSA maintains a close working relationship with law enforcement and reaches out to law enforcement partners to address potential criminal activity,” a spokesman said in an e-mail.

TSA administrator John Pistole last month acknowledged the various high-profile security encounters, describing them to a Senate panel as “one-off situations.” Pistole said the TSA is doing as much as it can to reduce them, and added that all screening devices will eventually have a filter to mitigate privacy concerns stemming from undergoing scans, which on some machines leave little of the human anatomy to the imagination.

The bill has 25 co-sponsors, including House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), who along with other GOP leaders released a scathing report on the TSA in November, calling for reform and a renewed focus on risk-based screening. Mica said the TSA is overburdened with bureaucrats and called unnecessary pat-downs an “insult to the freedom of the American people.”


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