Democrats love playing chicken with America's safety. Right now, their grudge match over border enforcement has left TSA agents unpaid and airports in disarray. Travelers face hour-long lines while screeners call out sick or quit altogether. If we put the Democrats’ recklessness aside for a moment, we can actually see what the real problem that got us here really is: the federalization of airport security.
The partial government shutdown targeting the Department of Homeland Security has left over 260,000 federal employees working without pay, including TSA agents. As a result, longer lines, lower morale, and a staffing crisis are rippling through airports just as millions of families head out for spring break. It's a mess.
But it's a mess that didn’t have to be. Airport security wasn’t always like this. And now that we know that a Democrat Party temper tantrum can cripple airport security, I think we can all agree that the decision to federalize airport security must be revisited.
For those of us who don’t remember, President George W. Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act into law on November 19, 2001, mere weeks after September 11, creating the TSA. Standing at Reagan National Airport, Bush declared, "For the first time, airport security will become a direct federal responsibility — overseen by a new undersecretary of transportation for security,” as if that was a good thing. “Additional funds will be provided for federal air marshals. A new team of federal security managers, supervisors, law enforcement officers, and screeners will ensure that all passengers and carry-on bags are inspected thoroughly and effectively."
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Look, Bush was the leader we needed after 9/11, and I believe he did an amazing job overall, but this is one of those things I never agreed with him on. I also get how it happened. Let’s face it, people were scared after the 9/11 attacks, and they felt something had to be done. Instead of increasing federal standards for airport security, we got the government running it, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who could argue it’s been a success.
Before 9/11, private security companies contracted with airlines to handle passenger and baggage screening. Congress and the Bush administration were convinced that centralizing it under a federal agency would make things safer. But here's the uncomfortable truth: there is no documented instance of a TSA agent foiling a terrorist attack in the agency's 25-year history. A Cato Institute study from 2013 found that TSA's screening performance has been no better, and possibly worse, than private screening.
So what exactly did federalization get us besides another bureaucracy that doesn’t do its job well and, on top of everything else, can be held hostage by Senate Democrats who refuse to fund DHS unless immigration enforcement agencies like ICE are defunded or restructured?
The shutdown exposed a real vulnerability, and the solution is to privatize something that should never have been federalized in the first place.
