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Home  >  Law In Travel • TSA  >  Senators Angry TSA Budget Is Being Redirected To Border
Law In TravelTSA

Senators Angry TSA Budget Is Being Redirected To Border

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 28, 2019May 28, 2019 11 Comments

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators is angry that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is diverting money and personnel to the southern border and away from airports.

The US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee oversees the TSA. Both Republican and Democratic members of the committee are concerned that re-direction of personnel to the U.S. Southern Border will come at the expense of airport security screening. This summer is slated to shatter all previous travel records in terms of number of passengers, putting increased strain on already-stretched TSA personnel.

That’s why Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) are questioning why it is necessary to send up to 400 screeners (TSOs) and 75 Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) to the Mexican border. The FAMs are part of TSA’s “Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR)” team, a secretive “multi-layered” approach to keeping airports safe. Senators are asking: if these personnel are at the border, who is filling in the gaps at U.S. airports and how is their specialized training helping at the southern border?

But that’s not all. Senators are angry that the TSA plans to divert $232 million from the 2019 budget to fund “border operations”. Per ATW, that money was intended to fund advanced airport screening equipment plus provide compensation to TSA employees who are injured on the job.

This significantly undermines the TSA request to tack on an extra $1 to each one-way U.S. airline ticket in order to fund more screening.

In a letter to the TSA, the Senators wrote:

While we acknowledge the request for additional resources from the Department of Homeland Security, we have concerns about the potential impact on executing TSA’s mission to ‘protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. Deployment of FAMs would significantly diminish operational capacity, and diversion of funds may slow deployment of new computed tomography (CT) screening machines.

Senators have asked the TSA to provide a risk assessment and analysis concerning the redeployment of funds and personnel.

CONCLUSION

Is the U.S. border a transportation system? I suppose. But serving meals and offering humanitarian aid seems tangentially related, at best, to ensuring free movement and protecting transport system. The Senators are justified in their concern.

> Read More: TSA Agents Sent To Southern Border To Serve Meals…
> Read More: Immigration Mayhem At SFO

image: TSA

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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11 Comments

  1. Neither Woke, Nor Broke Reply
    May 28, 2019 at 12:12 pm

    Trump will do everything to wreck the public sector – wreck the TSA and hand Airport security over to a private contractor like Triple Canopy or a new enterprise owned by one of his buddies.

    Crony capitalism at its best!

  2. Kyle Reply
    May 28, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    Well, when there’s no barrier (wall) to stop the massive influx in what everyone can agree is a national crisis (Hundreds of thousands per month, limited facilities) there has to be manpower on the border. Since national injunctions by district court judges are requiring the government to feed, clothe, and house illegal aliens rather than just do what every other country does and deport them.

    If Congress wants to get serious, they can keep the TSA staffed at the same levels and beef up border security. But the Democrats don’t want to do that.

    • Michael Reply
      May 28, 2019 at 4:39 pm

      Didn’t the Republicans have control over BOTH branches of government for the first two years of Trump’s term? I don’t think you can say the Democrats don’t want to do that, I think you meant to say neither party wanted to do that.

    • UA-NYC Reply
      May 29, 2019 at 5:02 am

      So ignorant as is typical of Republicans these days. The buildup and influx at the border is a Trump-generated crisis…net migration was zero towards the end of the Obama presidency.

      Much like the election of a Democratic causes gun-loving NRA members to go stock up due to (misguided) fears of taking away their guns – this joker’s talk of building a wall (not going to happen) and turning insular & decreasing immigration is what’s causing the “crisis”.

    • AdamR Reply
      May 29, 2019 at 9:55 am

      You don’t find it remotely interesting how this “crisis” only erupted or even came in to existence the last few months? And who are these “everyone” people that agree? Were that the case, I’m sure the ridiculous wall would be well underway by now. Also, you don’t find it funny that this “crisis” comes when border crossings – in numbers published by CBP here: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2017-Dec/cbp-border-security-report-fy2017.pdf – have been consistently falling for nearly two decades? C’mon, dude(tte); at least do a tiny bit of research on your own. This is embarassing for you.

  3. Christian Reply
    May 28, 2019 at 1:55 pm

    The air marshals haven’t stopped a single terrorist incident ever, although they do look awful stylish in the first class seats that they displaced someone else from. Send them all to the border for a while.

  4. Kevin Reply
    May 28, 2019 at 9:03 pm

    If the Gubment insists on keeping this jobs program around, moving 400+ TSO’s to the border to play on their phones and serve drinks will not only positively affect airport screening but should be more in tune with the capabilities of those otherwise unemployable individuals. Perhaps the TSO’s can have the illegals remove their shoes just for old time sake.

    The Air Marshals can be utilized to shoot rattlers that get too close to the wall, and maybe free up some first class seats for us.

  5. John waterson Reply
    May 28, 2019 at 9:35 pm

    I’m angry Congress doesn’t adequately fund border security forcing this. I am also,angry Congress has no problem with leaving the southern border unsecured while being ok with TSA and customs abusive practices against citizens and tourists while ignoring the dangers posed by illegals. Trump should have from day one in office declared martial law on the border and sent down 100,000 troops who are getting paid sitting in bases to guard the border.

    • Michael Reply
      May 29, 2019 at 12:15 pm

      Breathe John. Breathe.

  6. Gregory Johnson Reply
    May 29, 2019 at 6:01 pm

    Crazy. TSA must obviously not need the funding, same as the military, if they both can hand it over to the Border Patrol.

  7. Pingback: Links To Go (May 30, 2019) | The Kitchen of Half-Baked Thoughts

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