Senate panel approves funding boost for TSA

A Senate panel on Wednesday backed a Department of Homeland Security spending bill that contains a slight funding boost for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in an effort to help the agency battle growing airport security lines.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security approved a fiscal 2017 appropriations measure that would designate $7.7 billion for the TSA, which is $228 million above current levels and $79 million above the administration’s request.

{mosads}The TSA has cut its staff in recent years, anticipating that its PreCheck program would speed up the normal screening process, but not enough passengers enrolled. The agency is now struggling to deal with an influx of travelers, which has led to massive security lines and missed flights — a problem that is only expected to grow worse this summer.

Chairman John Hoeven (R-N.D.) emphasized in a brief interview with The Hill that appropriators have routinely given the TSA more money than officials have asked for, so the agency’s ongoing problems are not due to a lack of funding.

“We’re making sure that funding is not the issue,” Hoeven said.

The funding boost for the TSA would provide for 1,344 additional screeners, 50 new canine teams and new explosives trace detection systems.

The draft legislation also makes investments in the TSA’s Innovation Task Force to explore technology solutions, such as testing automated lanes at airports.

“Missed flights and wait times of an hour or more in security lines are wearing on customers, and the approaching surge in summer travel threatens to make matters even worse,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member on the subcommittee, said at the hearing. “I’m pleased this bill takes additional action to right-size airport security staff and resources.”

But the bill provides funding for fiscal 2017, meaning a fresh injection of cash won’t come until Oct. 1 — and that’s assuming Congress doesn’t pass a clean extension.

Lawmakers have been racing to provide relief in the meantime, including approving a $34 million funding shift in the TSA’s current budget to hire and train nearly 800 new screeners and pay overtime to current ones.

Other immediate options that have been floated include shifting 3,000 officers from behavioral detection to screening duties, allowing airports to pay TSA staff overtime and expand enrollment in PreCheck.