John Mica: TSA Needs to Slash Its Own Work Force Before Reducing Private Screeners

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica, the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said that he had little faith in the Transportation Security Agencys (TSA) plans to reduce its private contracted screeners. Instead, Mica said the TSA needed to reduce the size of its own work force.

Its unimaginable that TSA would suspend the most successfully performing passenger screening program weve had over the last decade, said Mica. The agency should concentrate on cutting some of the more than 3,700 administrative personnel in Washington who concocted this decision, and reduce the army of TSA employees that has ballooned to more than 62,000.

Nearly every positive security innovation since the beginning of TSA has come from the contractor screening program, added Mica. I intend to launch a full investigation and review of the matter.

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