The Transportation Security Administration isn’t making many friends.

If long screening lines, privacy invasions and other TSA-inflicted indignities weren’t enough, the agency now faces a funding battle. A decade since the agency was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, a debate is raging over the cost of aviation security and who should foot the bill.
Even Rep. John Mica, the Florida Republican who set up the agency, is now pushing to dismantle and privatize what he calls his “little ....... child.”

The TSA is only going to grow. Aviation experts predict increases in domestic air travel as the economy recovers — and that the bigger traffic flow through the nation’s airports will swamp the current “one-size-fits-all” screening unless the TSA receives a bump in its annual budget of about $8 billion.

The White House’s recent proposal to triple the security fee for fliers — part of its deficit reduction plan — has added urgency to the discussion. The airline lobby blanketed Capitol Hill in recent weeks to tell members of Congress and their staffs why the hike would result in thousands of lost jobs, service cuts and higher fares.

“We have soundly beat them back every year and plan to do that again this year,” said Sharon Pinkerton, vice president of government affairs at the Air Transport Association. “Part of our success is people’s frustrations with the growth of the TSA. This agency needs to get its act together.”