Friday September 21, 2001

WASHINGTON - The terrorist attacks may mean the end of an airport security system that relied on low-paid workers in jobs with high turnover.

Many lawmakers, industry representatives, and watchdog groups said the government should replace security companies paid by the airlines and handle security itself. That would better safeguard fliers and restore confidence in airline travel, they said. The government will make significant changes, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said Thursday at congressional hearings on last week's four terrorist hijackings. "If you ask me if it's going to be federal civil servants doing the screening, I can't give you that answer right now," Mineta told lawmakers. "It's going to be substantially different. It will be enhanced. It will be ... a lot better than it is right now." Reports by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and the Transportation Department's inspector general have documented holes in the security system. The Federal Aviation Administration is developing new rules for security companies to follow in training workers who screen passengers at airport security checkpoints. "We should not be concentrating on how cheap we can do it but how good we can do it," said Sen. John Breaux, D-La. Jane Garvey, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said it would cost taxpayers $1.8 billion a year if the government took over the job of screening passengers before they board their planes. It is a change the airline industry long has advocated. Industry watchdog groups have also supported a federal takeover of security. "Who could rationally argue that we should again entrust our national security to private security contractors or airline and airport employees?" said Paul Hudson, director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group affiliated with consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

In agreement were many lawmakers at House and Senate hearings. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, said lawmakers were writing legislation that would put the government in charge of airport security.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the top Republican on the aviation subcommittee, suggested a single FAA security division of higher-paid airport screeners and hundreds of armed air marshals. The Transportation Department's inspector general said the department should consider taking over the security system itself or creating a not-for-profit federal corporation to do the work. That would mean "uniform, more rigorous training, and performance standards" for passenger and baggage screeners, and "result in more consistent security" at airports, Kenneth Mead said.