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New bill should help prod TSA procedures

But help may come sooner with new "Secure Flight" program

Last update: August 10, 2008 - 11:56 PM

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"NO FLY" NUMBERS

• 2 million people fly daily

• Fewer than 400,000 on "Consolidated Terror Watch List"

• Fewer than 50,000 subject to extra screening and on "No Fly List"

• 39,410 requests for "redress" due to misidentifications

• 21,847 have been adjudicated

• 2,813 under review

• 12,896 await documentation

Source: TSA

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It's been a tough few weeks, especially in the eyes of Minnesotans, for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the federal agency responsible for airport security.

First was the news that the TSA had hired Sonia Pitt, the erstwhile MnDOT official who was fired for impropriety, as a security specialist. Then the Aug. 4 Star Tribune had a Page 1 photo of a sweet, smiling John Anderson, who, due to his common name, was misidentified as being on an airline terror watch list at the tender age of 2.

The next day a Minnesotan in a position to help reform the beleaguered agency, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, made news by introducing a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the TSA, to create "a 'one-stop-shop' to protect American travelers from experiencing unnecessary delays caused by federal terrorist watch list misidentifications."

Several key provisions would help improve the process, including requiring the secretary of Homeland Security "to enhance information sharing between DHS and other Federal agencies that use the terrorist watch list."

Neither Klobuchar, nor her co-sponsor, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., are questioning the basic premise and promise of a process set up in haste after 9/11. Despite its well-publicized problems, the program is essential in keeping the skies safe. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), tasked by Congress to evaluate government programs, has stated that it has "helped to combat terrorism."

The bill is intended to mandate that misidentifications be ironed out, which is important not only for little John Anderson and every other traveler inadvertently inconvenienced, but to shore up public support for such a crucial component of homeland security. The bill is reasonable and should be passed.

But hopefully many of the problems will be fixed by then. Help may already be on the way, with the early 2009 implementation of the "Secure Flight" program, which will make administrating and adjudicating who is on the TSA's Watch List the sole responsibility of the federal government.

Federalizing a task currently shared with the private sector might frighten civil libertarians and efficiency experts, but here it's a good thing. The current system involves the airlines in the process, which creates an extra and unnecessary layer in clearing travelers.

So between Klobuchar's new bill and the new streamlined procedures, better days should be ahead for frustrated flyers who are wrongly inconvenienced. And, just maybe, there are better days ahead for the flawed, but vital, TSA.

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