TSA chief: 768 screeners to be added at airports

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Transportation Security Administration will add 768 new screeners by mid-June to deal with increasingly long airport security lines that have caused passengers to miss flights even before the busy summer travel season, the agency’s chief told Congress on Wednesday.

Most of the new screeners will be sent to the nation’s busiest airports in Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and other hubs, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told a House committee.

The TSA also has increased the use of overtime in Chicago and other major airports, converted some part-time workers to full-time status and increased the use of bomb-sniffing dogs to help with security lines, Neffenger said.

And it is launching an incident command center that will track daily screening operations and shift officers, canine units and other resources to shorten lines at the busiest times, he said. The group includes officials from major airlines and industry associations.

“We have a challenge this summer, which we are aggressively meeting head-on,” Neffenger told the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the panel’s chairman, was unconvinced. Congress has granted a request by the TSA to reallocate $34 million to hire more officers and pay overtime, yet wait times are growing, he said.