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CNN Sunday Morning
Change of Command at Nation's Airports
Aired February 17, 2002 - 10:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There is a change of command today at the nation's airports, but you may not notice it, at least initially. The federal government is now officially in charge of the airport security instead of the airlines. CNN's Kathleen Koch is monitoring this transfer of power to the newly created transportation security administration and she joins us live from Dulles Airport just outside of Washington. How's it going so far Kathleen?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Going very smoothly Miles. Someone this morning jokingly likened this to two people exchanging title to a used car and then the new owner taking it for a good tune- up, because basically there are no new federal screeners in place at any airports in the country today. What the government is doing is assuming the contracts that the airlines have had for years with these private screening companies.
Now the head of the new transportation security administration, John Magaw, took a flight into Dulles International Airport this morning. He had a chance to meet with some of the screeners who are in place and who will be doing this job, some of them for months to come, and he said their first goal is to make sure that security is uniformed across the board.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MAGAW, UNDERSECRETARY FOR SECURITY: I think more than anything, which you'll see in the next few days a consistency. You had 60 companies all around the company - all around the country doing slightly different things, and there was no one oversight or one advisory group, one controlling unit - now you have that. So you'll see more consistency. This is nothing different than let's say a bank merger. The people stay for the most part, it's just the leadership that may adjust, and so we're going to be watching the operation. If we see the things that need to be changed, we're going to change them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOCH: And there are (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 36 interim airport security managers that are in place at the nation's airports. They were sent to the airports on Friday to smooth this transition, to talk to the airports, the airlines, the screeners about how things will go. The actual new federal screeners who are more highly paid that are trained are not required to be in place until late November. Now Congress will be keeping a close watch on how this new agency does its job because officially there is no other government body that has oversight over how the transportation of security administration conducts screening.
And another issue of concern is that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) new screeners will not have the same whistleblower protection that every other federal employee enjoys, though John Magaw this morning said that informally they would be encouraged to report any problems they see. Back to you.
O'BRIEN: Kathleen, it's been a big job getting this new administration up and running so quickly. Obviously there's been a lot of bumps along the way. When do they really feel they're going to be sort of in control of airport security? It's going to be awhile isn't it?
KOCH: It is Miles. It's going to take quite awhile. They're hoping to start seeing the first federal screeners in place during the spring, but again all 40,000 of them don't have to be in place until late November and the TSA has already said that they have more jobs than they have people to fill them because so many of the current screeners will be excluded because they are not American citizens.
They may not speak English as well as the new requirements will be demanding. They may not have high school degrees, so they will be struggling to meet this November 20 deadline. Also they do say they won't have a problem, though, finding new security managers, the people who will be in charge of security at the airports. They say they've gotten nearly 10,000 applications for the 81 jobs they have to fill there.
O'BRIEN: OK. CNN's Kathleen Koch at Dulles Airport. Thanks a lot.
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