Make checked bags free for better air security?

Treating every airport passenger as a potential terrorist threat slows the security system, is needlessly frustrating and deters some people from flying, according to a report that recommends ways to ease bottlenecks at security checkpoints.The report, commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association and released Wednesday, calls on airlines to allow passengers to check one bag for free and urges the creation of a voluntary "trusted travelers" program that partly resembles one proposed by President George W. Bush and shot down by Congress.

The furor last fall over new and invasive screening techniques by the Transportation Security Administration, and an avalanche of carry-on bags adding to airport lines, have ratcheted up pressure for change both in Congress and the travel industry.

The federal government would not need congressional approval to mandate that airlines allow one checked bag for free. But it is doubtful that the TSA could implement a trusted travelers initiative without congressional approval. Adding impetus to the report is the heavyweight panel behind it, headed by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Jim Turner, a former Democratic member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Travel industry analysts think the long-awaited report will continue the debate over screening procedures and add another element to it: Even a voluntary trusted travelers approach would require passengers to provide credit information, tax returns and other personal data to verify that members pose little or no risk. In return, they would be allowed to zip through security.

The panel also said that airlines should be ordered drop baggage fees that now typically run from $20 to $100 per checked bag. Passengers carry on far more bags than ever to avoid those fees, creating even longer lines at screening facilities.

Although TSA Administrator John Pistole would take issue with some of the panel's findings, he has advocated moving to a more nimble approach. The report could help him deal with a risk-averse Congress. Spokesman Nicholas Kimball said Pistole wants airport security to be "more risk-based and intelligence-driven, shifting away from a one-size-fits-all approach."

The proposal of a trusted traveler program takes the debate through a thicket, pitting the right to privacy against the goal of secure flight. Congress rejected a Bush administration plan known as CAPPS II that would have tapped into credit information to verify passenger credentials.

"The key difference is that the program we're recommending is totally voluntary," said Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, which commissioned the study a year ago. "Travelers, and especially frequent fliers, would give their right arm for a different experience."

The study portrays airport security as inefficient, invasive and expensive. "Some in Congress appear to have calculated that there are no political consequences to an inefficient and costly system but great political consequences to a successful terrorist attack," it says. "This is a classic Hobson's choice that the American traveling public repudiates."

The study also says that the often-criticized TSA security workforce should receive more training, particularly in detecting suspicious behavior by passengers. Freeman said the will to make the system more flexible has to originate with Congress.