Just published...

Highlights:

"The ability of TSA screeners to stop prohibited items from being carried through the sterile areas of the airports fared no better than the performance of screeners prior to September 11, 2001." Richard Skinner, Former DHS Inspector General, January 26, 2005

"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."

"TSA‘s passenger and checked baggage screening programs have been tested over the years, and while the test results are classified, their performance outcomes have changed very little since the creation of TSA."

"TSA‘s behavior detection program, Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT), costs a quarter of a billion dollars to operate annually, employing almost 3,000 behavior detection officer full-time equivalents (FTEs). TSA has invested more than $800 million in this program since 2007, and it will require more than $1.2 billion more over the next five years. In spite of this costly program, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 17 known terrorists traveled on 24 different occasions through security at eight airports where TSA operated this program. In fact, GAO found that not one terrorist had been caught by the SPOT program, and the program has not been scientifically validated."

[Sadly, the recommendations of this report, even if followed, will not move the dial towards efficacy and safety, that the private sector in a free market had previously provided... this is the closest thing to a private sector competitive situation that the recommendations come to:]

"TSA should expand and revise the Screening Partnership Program so that more airport authorities can transition airport screening operations to private contractors under federal supervision. Instead of vesting all discretion with TSA to approve airport opt-out applications, the TSA Administrator should pre-qualify private screening companies that are capable of providing effective passenger and baggage screening services. Then, when an airport makes the decision to apply to the Screening Partnership Program, TSA can select from the pre-qualified contractors."

While a move in the right direction, this government agency as middle man on who airports get to hire to perform these services (like they did prior to 911) will ONLY create more CRONY CAPITALISM with the agency picking winners and losers, not based on performance, but based on access, influence, lobbying and corruption.

Full report:
http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/112th/Aviation/20...

The Congressional folks involved with this should have established a bill that abolished TSA and allowed the free market to compete for the role of screener, and the free market will improve on the failures and mistakes of the government agency.... once again... name ONE agency that does ANYTHING more efficient than the private sector can...

Congress should re-read their own report where it quotes Skinner:

"The ability of TSA screeners to stop prohibited items from being carried through the sterile areas of the airports fared no better than the performance of screeners prior to September 11, 2001." Richard Skinner, Former DHS Inspector General, January 26, 2005

WE ARE NO SAFER AND ONLY POORER THANKS TO TSA.

Participation through coercion and force is not as effective as the market demanding RESULTS.