the BUFFALOg: Privatize the TSA

One of the first overreactions to the attacks of 9/11 was the hasty restructuring of the airport passenger-screening system. Flailing around for something or someone to blame for the hijackings, Congress fell upon the ever-unpopular screeners -- even though they'd broken no rules in allowing the hijackers to board their flights that morning.

The screeners aren't paid enough, some said. They're undertrained, claimed others. We can't trust the security of American citizens to a system that cares more about profits than safety. And so, rather quickly for Congress, out went the old system and in came the new. A government-run agency with government employees making substantially more than previously.

But it hasn't been smooth, um, flying. The agency, admittedly under intense scrutiny and political interference has made misstep after blunder. From its inaccurate no-fly list, the ill-advised body pat-downs, experiments with X-Ray machines that denude passengers' bodies, to employees stealing from luggage, the TSA has emerged as a big target.

And, it appears, the President, after having signed on in the beginning, may have rethought his support.

Under provisions of President Bush's 2006 budget proposal favored by Congress, the TSA will lose its signature programs in the reorganization of Homeland Security. The agency will probably become just a manager of airport security screeners -- a responsibility that itself could diminish as private screening companies increasingly seek a comeback at U.S. airports. The agency's very existence, in fact, remains an open question, given that the legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security contains a clause permitting the elimination of the TSA as a "distinct entity" after November 2004.

Expect the outcry to begin soon (it probably already has.) Those with what I like to call the "romantic view" of government will, as they did before the TSA's formation, insist that only dispassionate and professional public servants can be entrusted with safeguarding the nation's airways. As always they'll bluster that some jobs simply can't be left up to the market.

But they're wrong. These same people think nothing of getting on a plane that has just been serviced by mechanics who work for the airlines -- profit-seeking (if not always profit-making) entities. And, indeed, these romanticists daily entrust their lives to privately employed pilots. A few of these same people may live in Scottsdale, Arizona where (are you ready?,) for over 50 years the fire department has been privately run.

And what about the worry that the previous airport screeners were undertrained and underpaid? Well, then, specify the training necessary. Security companies will have to comply. And then those employees will become more valuable and their pay will rise. Once a company has invested money in training an employee, it will pay him enough to keep him if he's good at his job.

In the end, private security screeners will likely not make the same as their currently government-employed counterparts, but low pay (or high) is not an indicator of good job performance. That's much more affected by management -- and privately employed managers will respond more quickly to their customers and expect the same from their employees.

It's time to admit the mistake, cut bait, and re-privatize the airport screeners.

Why now? Because the American public hasn't had time to become "married" to the idea of government screeners. I mentioned Scottsdale's private (Rural-Metro) Fire Department because it's such a radical idea in these parts. We've become so accustomed to the idea of government-run Fire Departments in big towns and cities that we can't even imagine an alternative. Can you visualize the firestorm (no pun intended) that would erupt if the suggestion of privatizing Buffalo's Fire Department were put forth?

I've often thought about how lucky we are that FDR didn't nationalize the food distribution industry in the 30s. It would have gone something like this. (In stentorian tones,) We cannot sit back while the very sustenance of the American public is thrust onto the altar of profit. We must, and we will, assure that America's food larder is kept full under the watchful eye of her elected leaders.

Today we'd have no Tops and no Wegmans -- just Government Food Centers (think Post Office) in each town offering a pale selection of bureaucrat-approved food that differed not from town to county to state. Now government's gotten smarter in some ways, they'd probably be called "Markets for US" or some such cute thing, but prices would be fixed by Congress and the subsidies to the Department of Nutrition would be adjusted in each budget. Shudder.

And everyone would now believe that was the only possible way to preserve our food supply -- thank God FDR didn't leave it to the market.

Thank God he did and lets drag the airport screeners out of that government-hell as soon as we can.

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