Senate plan advises federalized screeners

The Portland International Jetport and Bangor International Airport are among the airports included in a plan to use federal employees as baggage screeners.

Under a bipartisan Senate compromise promoted Tuesday, luggage screeners at the country’s largest 140 airports would become federal workers.

The Portland and Bangor airports are the 97th and 139th largest in terms of the number of passengers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The General Accounting Office has found that low pay and the monotonous duties contribute to high turnover among baggage screeners. At the country’s 19 largest airports, annual turnover is 100 percent, the GAO said in a June 2000 report.

The compromise is a step toward improving security despite some opposition to enlarging the federal work force, said Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican member of the Transportation Committee.

She and Democratic Rep. John Baldacci, who serves on the House Transportation Committee, have advocated making screeners at all airports federal employees.

Baldacci said federalizing the workers is necessary so they can receive information from intelligence agencies and the FBI, have standardized training and achieve uniformity in screening practices.

“I just think it has to happen,” Baldacci said.

Votes are expected this week in the Senate and House on measures to improve aviation security.

House leaders have been resistant to federalizing baggage screeners. Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, repeated Tuesday that the “correct position” is for closer federal supervision but with screeners still hired as private contractors.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta had said that federalizing all screeners would require 28,000 positions and cost $1.8 billion a year.

The compromise under discussion would create 10,000 federal positions and cost $1.2 billion, according to Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, D-S.C., who chairs the Transportation Committee.

The cost would be covered by a fee of $5 per ticket, which Hollings said enjoyed strong support in polls.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and ranking GOP member on the committee, supports the compromise, but believes federal screeners should work for the Justice Department rather than the Transportation Department.