TSA Celebrates 10 Years of Sucking!
A decade into its existence, a new report blasts the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as a 10-year-old monster child. From the Wash Post:
After a $56 billion federal investment in airline security, flying is no safer than it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the bare hands of passengers might be the best defense once a terrorist gets on board, two members of Congress [Reps. John Mica and Paul Broun] said Wednesday.
Deriding the Transportation Security Administration as a bloated bureaucracy that recruits security personnel with ads on gas pumps and pizza boxes, the two House Republicans said it needed to undergo almost a dozen reforms….
Mica and Broun, both longtime critics of the agency, challenged the need for 3,986 employees at its Washington headquarters, saying they earned an average of $103,852 a year.
The Post account notes that the TSA (Testicle Squeezing Agency) has its defenders, especially among those folks paid to do so:
TSA spokesman Greg Soule denounced the report.
"At a time when our country's aviation system is safer, stronger and more secure than it was 10 years ago, this report is an unfortunate disservice to the dedicated men and women of TSA who are on the front lines every day protecting the traveling public," Soule said. "TSA has developed a highly trained federal workforce that has safely screened over 5 billion passengers and established a multilayered security system reaching from curb to cockpit. "
Hat tip: Hot Air
Read the actual report here. Some lowlights:
? Since 2001, TSA staff has grown from 16,500 to over 65,000, a near-400% increase. In the same amount of time, total passenger enplanements in the U.S. have increased less than 12%.
? Since 2002, TSA procured six contracts to hire and train more than 137,000 staff, for a total of more than $2.4 billion, at a rate of more than $17,500 per hire. More employees have left TSA than are currently employed at the agency.
? Over the past ten years, TSA has spent nearly $57 billion to secure the U.S. transportation network, and TSA's classified performance results do not reflect a good return on this taxpayer investment.
? On average, there are 30 TSA administrative personnel—21 administrative field staff and nine headquarters staff—for each of the 457 airports where TSA operates.
And watch Reason.tv's celebrated TSA playlist by clicking below. These six videos have garnered well over 600,000 combined views. Is it any wonder why?
And read Reason's archive of TSA stories here.
