Airport managers claim background investigations are hurting them

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A security policy that mandates government background investigations of new airport hires, including sales clerks, waiters and custodians, is drawing protests from some airports that say they can't hire workers because clearances take so long.
Two leading airport associations asked the Transportation Security Administration to rescind or revise the policy that took effect Oct. 1 in a TSA effort to improve scrutiny of airport workers.

"The new process is not working," Airports Council International President Greg Principato said in a letter Thursday to TSA chief Kip Hawley. "Businesses are contemplating shutting down because of the inability to bring on new employees."

TSA spokesman Ellen Howe said the agency is working with the council and the American Association of Airport Executives to end the delays. She said they are caused by technical difficulties sending job applicants' personal information to the TSA through the airport association's computer network.

"When you start something new, it's going to take a little time to work it out," Howe said. "But we aren't going to back down on vetting people."

Flights and other critical airport operations have not been slowed, but airport officials warn that could happen.

"We've had two and a half weeks of turmoil," said Randy Walker, director of Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, which is waiting for the TSA to approve about 500 people who have been offered jobs at the airport. "This exacerbates the whole problem of not having enough staff to process passengers or check people out at stores."

At Miami International Airport, some of the 720 people who have not been cleared by the TSA are taking jobs elsewhere, airport security director Lauren Stover said. Shops and restaurants at the airport are "incurring a lot of overtime to augment the people who should be working," Stover said.

The TSA's new policy bars airports from issuing an employee ID card that gives access to secured areas until the TSA verifies that a potential worker is in the country legally and does not have terrorist ties.

Before Oct. 1, the TSA ran its background investigations after someone started working at an airport. It would order ID cards revoked for those found to be problematic.

"It improves security to do the background investigations ahead of time because these individuals are going to have unescorted access to our nation's airports," Howe said.

Airports want the TSA to shelve its new policy until background investigations can be done quickly. "We're not asking for anything that would cause less security," said Wendy Reiter, security chief at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. "We're just saying, let's go back to what you were doing until you fix the problem."