House Homeland Security Committee Approves Bill to Review TSA Known Shipper Program, Pilot Tomography
The House Homeland Security Committee recommended a bill that requires the Department of Homeland Security to do a comprehensive review and security assessment of the Transportation Security Administration's Known Shipper program. The Air Cargo Security Act, H.R. 4176, asks if the program should be eliminated, "considering the full implementation of 100 percent screening." The House bill directs TSA to establish an air cargo security division with at least four employees, but says those people would have to come from within the agency's existing staffing.
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The bill, which passed out of committee March 7 with unanimous consent, also gives the department 120 days to prepare a feasibility study to use computed tomography machines to screen cargo, and requires DHS to launch a two-year pilot of the technology within 120 days after the study's release.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said he is concerned that DHS has not been adapting tomography because of a lack of funding. Congress authorized 300 new machines, but the president's budget cut purchases back to 150 machines, for a savings of $75 million. McCaul said he's asked for a meeting with the Appropriations Committee chairman to tell him about classified material about the risks tomography could detect that X-ray machines cannot.
Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who wrote the air cargo bill, said the in-flight bomb that Australia prevented last year was a wake-up call for more attention to air cargo security. "It has been disappointing to see an erosion in focus on air cargo within TSA since publishing its air cargo security rule in 2009." Senators also have introduced legislation for a public-private review and security assessment of the Known Shipper program, including whether it should be “modified or eliminated” (see 1709280023).