Originally Posted by jackal

I don't think the airlines pay TSA. At best, they may pay the airport authority or the contracted vendors who staff the boarding pass checker positions (whatever they're called). TSA told me that they have no control over the express lanes--it's up to the airlines to enforce who gets to use them, but once they arrive at the TSA ID checking podium, TSA has to accept them even if they don't qualify for the express line, since TSA only controls the area from the podium on and has no control over what goes on outside of the TSA checkpoint, including the security lines.