For more than five years, the Transportation Security Administration has been deploying full-body imaging scanners in our nation’s airports. About 700 scanners have been deployed in nearly 190 airports nationwide. While the agency keeps installing these devices — which most people agree intrude on our privacy — there are real doubts whether these are actually making anybody safer. Yet because TSA failed to solicit public comments about the scanners — in violation of federal law — the agency is flying blind.
In 2010, the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the Department of Homeland Security, TSA’s parent department, to compel TSA to solicit public and expert input. In July 2011, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered TSA to “promptly” begin a rulemaking to allow for legally required public comments.
A year later, TSA, has not even begun the process. The law empowers courts to compel agency action when it is “unreasonably delayed.” TSA says it does not have the resources to begin this public comment process. But it has a discretionary budget larger than that of the entire federal judiciary and a staff larger than those of the Departments of State, Labor, Energy, Education, and Housing and Urban Development combined. This supposed lack of capacity has not prevented TSA from opening new proceedings on far less important matters, adding many more body scanners at airports nationwide, and launching the new PreCheck program for frequent fliers during the last year.
On July 17, EPIC petitioned the court to enforce its mandate. Two days later, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed an amicus brief supporting EPIC’s petition, along with the National Association of Airline Passengers, Electronic Frontier Foundation and six other organizations.
This rulemaking is the only way to determine whether TSA’s air travel security regime is worth its huge costs and adverse effects on the public’s well-being. Several independent analyses have found that TSA’s use of these machines would be economically wasteful even if they worked as well as TSA claims, but may actually make us less safe.
Ohio State University professor John Mueller has done a thorough analysis of U.S. air travel security. He found that even assuming the scanners are capable of detecting body-borne explosives, the likelihood of a terrorist carrying out such an attack is so low that the massive annual cost of deploying and using these machines outweighs any security benefit and could be much better allocated elsewhere.
But TSA’s security procedures are not merely ineffective: They may be endangering the public’s health and driving consumers to far more hazardous forms of transportation. Medical experts have raised genuine concerns about repeatedly exposing frequent flyers to potentially harmful radiation.
In addition, three Cornell University economists found that the agency’s onerous screening rituals have led many people to abandon short-haul flights — New York to Washington, for instance — and take to the road instead.
Yet the agency has still not allowed the public to comment on its most invasive — and unpopular — security measure to date.
This is unacceptable, especially as TSA continues deploying body scanners. According to Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., co-author of the law creating TSA, a classified Government Accountability Office study found that the explosive detection rates are unacceptably low. “If we could reveal the failure rate, the American public would be outraged,” Mica said at a March 2011 hearing.
Experience with “puffer” explosive detection machines shows how TSA’s exuberance in adopting unproven screening technologies without consulting the public and independent experts can waste time and money, and be unnecessarily intrusive. After spending $36 million purchasing the devices, TSA found them to be ineffective and removed them. They now sit unused in a Texas warehouse. That was a bargain compared to the $500 million TSA expects to spend on body scanners. The longer TSA delays in complying with the public comment requirement, the more likely they will continue to set bad security policy.
The court should promptly find in EPIC’s favor and require TSA to open a rulemaking on these full-body imaging machines within 60 days. If the court fails to act, TSA will be able to continue to evade judicial review, leaving the public with no meaningful recourse.
• Crandall is former chairman and CEO of AMR and American Airlines. Scribner is the land-use and transportation policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Comments (36)
Add commentInteresting
Wow. While I appreciate that the government wants to ensure safety after 9/11, it seems that TSA has become an untouchable giant with a potentially infinite budget and no real accountability.
Scary and not very American.
As someone who recently went through scanners with my children three times this summer, I hope TSA stops the "not enough resources" excuse and gets the comments...and publishes them! I'd like to year what scientists and mon-government people have to say.
Great letter.
TSA just needs to go. Hire a
TSA just needs to go. Hire a couple of sniffer dogs, since they are actually effective and cheap. Make these clowns go back to working at walmart.
"If we could reveal the failure rate, the American public
would be outraged." So states the co-author of the law creating TSA.
Well, there is the problem right there.
Maybe he should have read the law before he introduced it.
I like the idea of sniffer
I like the idea of sniffer dogs, however the comment about clowns and K-mart is really uncalled for
I know several of them and
I know several of them and their work history. And it was walmart.
I would much rather have a
I would much rather have a dog sniff my crotch than TSA workers...
Back in the 80's....
I took a train from Austria to Hungary, prior to the first free parliamentary election. I remember being astounded by how many people came into the car - one person checked the tickets. Another person checked the passport. Another person checked the visa in the passport. Another person counted the bags. And so on and so forth. TSA reminds me a lot of that - there seems to be about 3x as many people standing around as are actually needed to do the job. And if you are going to have that many people on the payroll, then OPEN ALL OF THE LANES!
What else should we expect
What else should we expect with Big Sis in charge? Since when did the law matter to this administration?
Just last week she told us that terrorists are crossing the southern border from "time to time"! Yikes...
Rather than sending some TSA workers back to WalMart, they need to be sent back to their home countries - like in TSA hires illegals.
Calypso is posting again.
Calypso is posting again. The public library must be open.
I do have to commend you,
I do have to commend you, fume, for exposing the idiocy of the left. It's all right there in plain sight...
Do you not see the irony in
Do you not see the irony in accusing the left of only slinging insults, when your entire post is some middle-school diatribe about bodily functions?
Answer honestly, now: are you Calypso's Id?
My only real issue
is with the nonsense of the whole thing. Like Exxon and BP throwing billions of dollars toward spill clean up, it's nothing but window dressing. The pure stupidity of following policy for policy's sake is ridiculous. My wife's bare feet where once wanded because she was singled out for "special" screening. After taking off her sandals there was nothing left to screen, but they had to go through the motions, anyway. If this is the level of intellect it takes to screen passengers, I'm not sure they're even "Walmart" material. But the bigger issue is the senselessness of the whole process.
@Calypso
Are you not aware that the TSA was established during the Bush administration Not Obama. You are SO quick to find fault the Obama that you forget the fact that the right is just as responsible for the state of this country as is the left.
billb, I think you make the mistake of assuming calypso isn't
a moron...
"What else should we expect with Big Sis in charge? Since when did the law matter to this administration?"
^ example of what morons say ^
Great news people - "As of
Not so great news people - "As of Thursday, August 2, 2012, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has agreed to unionize. The agency, best known for groping and offending Americans as we attempt to fly from one part of the country to the other, has agreed to allow the American Federation of Government Employees to unionize its workers."
p, I did not stoop as low as you accuse me of doing. I want an apology - right now! My reputation is at stake!!!
@bill - you and I both know that under Obama, TSA gropes have gotten much more fun - if ya know what I mean?
@calypso
All I know is that under the last administration, when I flew to Anchorage 2x a year as a coach with the Special Olympics the torture that the TSA put the athletes through was totally uncalled for. The groped and searched wheel chairs, canes, special shoes and braces. The went way beyond what was needed to allow these Special Olympians to get on the p;ages
Here's the thing,
Here's the thing, Calypso/NewLife/Beelzebub: if you were actually interested in solving problems instead of just fostering resentment, you and I would be on the same side. I don't like TSA. It's a violation of our privacy and, by extension, our freedoms.
But all you're concerned with is scoring points over which president made TSA the most effective freedom-violater.
Calypso, My wonder is why a
Calypso,
My wonder is why a homeless guy like you who has to use the computer at the library is such a staunch supporter of the same people who don't give a crap about you.
Actually p, Obama is
Actually p, Obama is president, so he and his appointees bear much of the responsibility for what we're going through right now with the TSA.
You and I both know that he has doubled down on many of our freedoms. He'd like to have you going through metal detectors and gropes to get on any form of public transportation and look what he's doing with drones. That's something that should frighten all of us.
@rough cut/
I am sure I have more intelligence and education than you have in your little finger. Your ignorant put downs of people just because that say and feel differently than you shows your lack if intelligence
I do believe that Calypso has
I do believe that Calypso has left the library for the day.
@rough cut/
It is spelled I've not i've
Hmmmm....
"for exposing the idiocy of the left"
This from the woman who contradicts herself every other post, and insists that each one is true.
Lack of TSA Accountability
TSA has no intention of obeying the court order to publish public comment on the scanners that were implemented illegally. TSA is indifferent to public opinion and Congressional oversight and consider their harassment of innocent citizens a measure of success. They openly defy Congress, abuse passengers and repeat the same lies to the point of absurdity and are rewarded with ever higher budgets for their arrogance.
They use the excuses of unpredictable procedures and sensitive security information to conceal rampant misconduct and mismanagement and offer Congress and the public empty promises.
They lied about the detail of the scanner images and their safety. They have promised to allow testing of the scanner three times and still have not complied. They have promised new rules for children and the elderly for two years but abuses continue,
They routinely lie to Congress and incredibly, no lawmaker has had the courage to hold them in contempt of Congress or block funding of the agency.
The Europeans don’t allow the scanners to be used on children because the image is so graphic it violates child pornography laws. It is unbelievable that so many cowards would allow a stranger to see their child’s naked image viewed by some unknown stranger or even worse allow a stranger to fondle their child’s privates in public.
Germany banned them and went back to metal detectors because of the 54% false positive rate with MMW while failing to detect items 40% of the time. The scanners are only used on 30% of passengers, the rest are sent through metal detectors so these aren’t making anyone “safer” if only some passengers are scanned.
The backscatter scanners have not been tested for radiation exposure despite multiple lawsuits and claims by radiologists that they pose a risk. They lack privacy software and a screener is viewing the nude image of every passenger who passes through in violation of multiple State and Federal laws prohibiting these searches without a court order or exigent circumstances.
The Rapi-Scan backscatter x-ray units pose a cancer risk and still produce a naked image that Denver TSA area director Pat Ahlstrom, admitted "were graphic, no doubt about it.". These images are usually viewed by male screeners putting female passengers and children at risk of harassment.
TSA needs to be held to the same standards of accountability as other agencies and those responsible for this excessive overreach and blatant corruption prosecuted by the next Congress.
You all miss the point!
The plan is to discredit TSA the same way the USPO has been set up to fail! They want to privatize it...take the taxpayer funded infrastructure and gift it to their cronies in exchange for political favors.....
TSA
As of November last year, I now have the pleasure of enduring the groping from the agents. I can never go through the scanners, or have the wands near my body. I had an implant placed in my spine. I had to fly to Seattle for a medical check-up for my implant in June. The TSA agent on the way home, went WAY beyond the normal pat downs. She gave me her usual spew of words informing me how she was going to do the pat down and did I have any tender areas. I alerted her to my implants and 2 surgical sites from it. She stated she would be gentle in those areas. Well, she lied. She pushed very hard on 1 of the 2 implants I have cuasing severe pains to shoot up my back. She then moved to my feet and started upward and literally karate chopped my crotch. I screamed "hey a lil rough aren't you" she smirked at me. She then did it again with my other leg and it almost made me fall over, due to it being much harder the 2nd time. This chick who barely looked 25, piped up "yeah, just means I am doing my job". WTF.. since when does a pat down mean karate chopping someones crotch? I had a witness with me who saw and heard it all, along with 3 other people collecting their items. I went to her supervisor and reported her. She was walking away going on break, when he asked who. I pointed to her as she walked towards the D gates. I got her name, filed a complaint in writting on the spot. I also filed one in DC with the head of TSA, sent a letter to Mrs. Cissna, and the ACLU. Needless to say, when I went back to Seattle 2 weeks ago, this chick was put on leave due to her actions and numerous complaints against her. We dont need these types of people who think they are "Rambolina" and can be allowed to assult someone, just because they wear the blue shirts.
what would happen if
what would happen if we all stopped flying? Maybe then the elected officals in DC would do something about TSA.
I agree with Alaskan Teacher.
I agree with Alaskan Teacher. I have been groped by a female TSA agent at the Juneau airport, while four of her male co-workers were standing by doing nothing but grinning. I have asked for private screening and I was told it will take 30-35 minutes to get into the private screening room (which would have made me to miss my flight).
My daughter has a feeding tube and only eats canned food designed for tube feeding. Every time I have to take her to Seattle to Children's Hospital, a TSA agent insists on opening the cans. If I don't allow the canned food to be opened since I would hate to starve her on the trip, they put me through a VERY thorough pat down, including pulling my clothes away to peek inside (both top and bottom). I'm not sure how is the liquid safer for the flight just because TSA had a chance to see the color of my undergarments!
And on the same trip someone told me on the plane they forgot their scissors in their purse and TSA missed it!
Really?!?
Julian, the problem is, we
Julian, the problem is, we can't just drive. We either go nowhere, or submit to their rule. If I lived in Seattle and was flying to Portland for business, then yeah, I'd say screw em and just drive. Not really a reality for Juneau. Even to go to Anchorage is realistically a two day trip each way. I have a friend who is a 25th degree black belt or some crazy thing like that. I always laugh when I travel with him. They make sure he doesn't have a bomb, gun, knife etc and then vouch that he is safe to board just like they do the rest of us. But in reality, they could put him in a straight jacket and he's more dangerous than 99% of the populace if he decided to be. And lets be honest about it. On board, if you ask for a pen, they give you one. Or you order a meal it comes with a fork and knife. Someone who is well trained and determined can be quite dangerous with anything. Remember 9/11 they used box cutters. Its not like they were high tech or well armed...
flying
What if the people of our country as a whole set a date to not fly for a day or two or for that matter a week. Wall Street, airline companies and anyone else for that matter would be at the steps of DC to change TSA or dissolve it. It is just a thought. Americans have the power to change this. If we don't like it lets change it.