Obama Administration Undermines Airline Security and Railroad Safety: 9/11 Lessons Ignored

by Hans Bader on September 13, 2009 · 3 comments

in Labor, Mobility, Politics as Usual, Precaution & Risk, Regulation

In the aftermath of 9/11, Congress foolishly shifted airline security screening to the inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has failed to detect explosive ingredients and fake bombs, in performance tests.

Now the Obama Administration is making matters even worse by undermining both airline security and railroad safety. A study found that the TSA is more than twice as likely to fail to detect a bomb as the private security firms it replaced. And TSA’s failure rate is three or four times as high as the few remaining private firms still allowed to handle airline security.

In tests, TSA failed to detect fake bombs 60 percent of the time at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, and 75 percent of the time in Los Angeles. Yet the Obama administration plans to make TSA even more bureaucratic by introducing collective bargaining, which will make it even harder to get rid of ineffective employees.

Rather than take over airline security screening, the federal government should have stepped up testing of the private companies that performed it, to weed out bad companies. President Bush initially objected to Congressional demands for a federal takeover, but knuckled under for political reasons. Ironically, even in European countries run by Socialist parties, airline security and screening is generally in the hands of private companies, which are are usually more diligent, innovative, and efficient, as well as less bureaucratic.

The Obama administration is also undermining the security of railroad passengers by gutting an expert, highly-rated, anti-terror agency at Amtrak, which Amtrak’s unions hate, because it is not unionized. Political cronyism also appears to be playing a role in the gutting of Amtrak’s Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations (OSSSO). Ultimately, OSSSO’s “highly-specialized officers” will likely be replaced by unionized employees with ”alarmingly low pass rates” in “basic” classes.

Tagged as: 9/11, airline safety, airline screening, airline security, airline security screening, Amtrak, Barack Obama, Obama, Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations, OSSSO, railroad safety, railroad security, September 11, Transportation Security Administration, TSA

Marilyn September 13, 2009 at 1:41 pm: I am beginning to believe that President Obama and his administration are letting TSA take over so that the security will be less and that way his foriegn friends can cause havic with this country and cause death to many innocent people. It is a shame that the soldiers are the only ones who are fighting to keep our country and her people safe and free. Our president and his admin don't seem to give a dang.
JoTSA September 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm: Anyone foolish enough to believe the previous private security was more effective than TSA at detecting anything in particular is sadly misinformed. The "explosive detection test" of prior companies involved things like FAA inspectors (all the security folks knew them on sight) walking in with a fake grenade in their hat or similar "tests." The tests now are actually realistic to an extreme. Cannot speak to the Amtrak security question except that the existing security in most parts of the country stays in place with TSA just adding another layer.
cubrikaska October 3, 2009 at 12:21 am: Es brillante