Here it comes. Just what many of you wanted.http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...te_screeners_2

I don't think so many would be out of work. First ones to be hired by the private companies would be the current TSA workforce because of the cost savings in training alone. Easier to hire someone who is already trained up to standard than to start all over with someone new who has to undergo the exact same TSA standards for training, OJT and certification.

Secondly, I seriously doubt there will be a mad rush towards privatization. Right now, the airport management staffs are in the driver's seat with zero cost. Everything falls on the federal government. Why ruin a good thing? By inheriting a private security company, even though TSA will still pay for a lot of the costs, the airlines will still inherit some of the headaches, complaints and administrivia that comes with playing middleman between the TSA management staff and the private contractor front office.

Thirdly, we really don't know what's attached to the Homeland Security spending bill. This is the nuts and bolts of DC politics. It's all about the rider provisions. The basic spending bill itself may be unacceptable, and if so, then everything attached to it would suffer the same fate. This proposal is only one of the many provisions added to the bill, and it's barely in the preliminary stages of the give-and-take compromises that occur behind closed doors in the life of a bill.

Fourthly, the airports cited liability as the number one reason for not going private. Where there's a number one reason, there's a number two reason, and where there's a number two, there's a number three. In other words, I don't think airports are going to jump on this incentive to go private. Some will, but many will not. The projection is 30 out of 450 airports would go private if this proposal passes. That's a whopping seven percent of all the airports currently staffed by TSA.

It truly does not matter to me what happens one way or the other. However, let's be realistic. A great majority of the airports prefer federal screening. Polls, statistics, interviews, etc have proven this point over and over. TSA isn't going away any time soon.

But there are 5 airports who have sucessfully been private for as long as there has been TSA screening. There must be something going right.

"Well, Danny, the world needs ditchdiggers too."

Judge Smails, Caddyshack

This would sink a lot of airlines becasue they can't afford to pay private screening, the aiports do not want the liability. SFO wants to go to TSA for those reasons.

The hidden joke behind "privatization" is that it is NOT really private. SFO has a TSA FSD, TSA staff, and TSA screening managers. The private contractor has supervisors, leads and screeners who are hired under the exact same standards as TSA screeners, have to follow the exact same SOP, have to undergo the exact same annual recertification tests, are subject to the exact same Red Team inspections and have to send the exact same PMIS reports to TSA headquarters. The only real "difference" is that the workforce itself is not on the TSA payroll, and even that is misleading because the federal government still pays a portion of those costs. In essence, there's really no such thing as privatized screening under the ATSA. What it really is, is an outsourcing of the screener workforce itself. And, as I said, the first ones most likely to be hired would be the current crop of TSA screeners for the reasons I stated.

The "privatization experiment" wasn't under sterile lab conditions; it was a stacked deck. The so-called "differences" between TSA and the five "private" airports are very very minimal. To cite any successes is like saying a football team won a scrimmage game. Ain't quite the same thing.

Like Bart said, this is not privatization. This "privatization" only involves the source of the paycheck to the screeners. The same idiots creating this policy (and its loopholes) will still be in charge.

Think about it. Look at how vehemently the Airport Association (whatever the group name is) wants to be exempt from liability. Doesn't that tell anyone how bad things could be in the TSA with claims and lawsuits, etc.? Says a lot to me.

About the OP/guilt trip....I don't have a lot of sympathy. I do not say that because of my bad experiences with individual screeners (yes, by far the minority), but I say that from a common sense approach. Did anyone REALLY think that the TSA would continue in its current form for the long term? How long did anyone think it would take some number crunchers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to question spending $5.5 billion a year with no results (I know, that's another argument, but this is politics)?

Technology and common sense are slowly...VERY slowly coming in to replace TSAers. Not everyone, but slowly and surely.

I always wondered though, what happens to the ticket surcharge for security screening? do the airlines cut a check to the feds and then they pay us? Isnt that a form of double taxation?

I'm sure it's all in the wording, and that has been maneuvered around. Probably similar to how some pay tolls for roads, etc. They have maneuvered around The First and Fourth Amendments, I'm sure double-taxation was barely a bump in the road.

Meh ... we're double taxed all the time.

We pay our state and federal taxes (and maybe local, depending on where you live) out of our checks, then on top of that they want to collect sales tax, gas tax, property tax, utility tax, etc, etc.

As LessO2 says, it's all in the wording.

Remember when taxes were tax free? We pay federal tax on sales taxes now and maybe soon on state income taxes. Looks like payback to us Blue State folks!

I think hating getting screwed by taxes is unique to blue state folks.

Blue states, red states, red folks in blue states, blue folks in red states ... take your pick.

This is not true, at least for SFO. The "private" screeners are the same people that held the jobs before 9/11. They are completely incompetent, some don't even speak or understand English very well. Probably about the worst I've encountered at any airport in the US. And they certainly don't follow the rules and regs.

So I will personally be delighted if they are all fired. The sooner the better. I know people have their complaints about the TSA government workers, but in my experience they are way way better at their jobs (such as they are).