Originally Posted by
SFOSpiff
First of all, I wasn't previously aware that the funding for the majority of the scanners that are currently deployed came from the 2009 stimulus. I assumed it was some normal allocation of TSA's budget, but I'm even further disgusted to know that money that was intended to get America moving was spent to smack us down.
The only thing I've found so far that's relevant to this is that the Recovery Act specified that the TSA "shall prioritize the award of these funds to accelerate the installations at locations with completed design plans."
I had forgotten that most of the scanners were bought with stimulus funds. For our projects, the Administration required weekly reporting on a public web site documenting how the money was being spent, where it was being spent, and how many jobs this was creating (and where they were being created). The TSA would have had the same reporting requirements. I'll see if I can find the web site if it is still up. Fortunately, with the stimulus funds gone, the TSA now has to buy and deploy these things with regular appropriated funds. The benefit to us is that procurement and deployment has slowed down considerably.
But, the pork $ just paid for copies. All of the original design and acquisition strategy was done before the economy went in the tank -- I want to say as early as 2005-2006. That will be harder to track down.