TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Transportation Security Administration Legal Issues

Transportation Security Administration Legal Issues

Introduction

The Transportation Security Administration's National Deployment Force deploys Transportation Security Officers to support airport screening operations during emergencies, seasonal demands, or other circumstances requiring more staffing resources than are regularly available. Our review of National Deployment Force Program costs responds to concerns raised by Congressman John Mica regarding the Transportation Security Administration's possible reliance on this program in ways not originally intended. In his letter of June 30, 2006, Congressman Mica requested information on when, where, and why the National Deployment Force had been deployed since the inception of the program, along with a breakdown of deployment expenses to include travel, per diem, hotel, and overtime costs for Fiscal Years 2004, 2005, and 2006.

The Transportation Security Administration implemented their deployment program without developing a process to determine the criteria and priority for deployment decisions, or ensuring the appropriateness of resource allocations. From the establishment of a deployment program in November 2003 until January 2007, they did not have financial systems to track and document program-related costs; adequate documentation to support deployment decisionmaking; or internal controls and standard operating procedures over key deployment functions. In addition, they were overly reliant on the deployment force to fill chronic staffing shortages at specific airports in lieu of more cost effective strategies and solutions to handle screening demands.

Legal Issues

We recommended that the Transportation Security Administration establish systems to collect, track, and report deployment costs; develop decisionmaking procedures for deployment requests and document results; and develop and disseminate standard operating procedures for key program functions to increase program efficiency and effectiveness. TSA officials generally agreed with our findings, and have initiated corrective actions to address recommendations in this report.

Background

Congress enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act 1 (ATSA) following the attacks of September 2001. The Act created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) within the Department of Transportation to protect the Nation's transportation systems. On March 1, 2003, TSA was integrated into the Department of Homeland Security. As part of its mission, TSA has responsibility for passenger and checked baggage screening operations at more than 400 commercial airports. Federal Security Directors (FSD) and their staff manage passenger and baggage screening operations, including management of the screener workforce, at one or more airports under their jurisdiction.

ATSA tasked TSA with building a federal agency and meeting a 1-year mandate to federalize aviation security for passenger screening by November 19, 2002. To meet this requirement, TSA recruited, hired, trained, and deployed approximately 55,000 federal full-time Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) to more than 400 airports by the mandated timeframe. In August 2002, following congressional concern over the size of the federalized TSO workforce, Congress imposed a cap prohibiting TSA from exceeding 45,000 TSO positions.

In November 2002, TSA's Office of Aviations Operations established a regionally based Mobile Screening Force (MSF) to support the initial deployment of federal screeners to each commercial airport and respond to other short-term operational needs. The MSF was composed of screening staff who were ...