Action Alert: Contact Your Members of Congress Regarding TSA ASP Amendment on Employee Screening
November 19, 2020
In response to concerns we have received from a number of airports across the country regarding TSA's proposed Airport Security Program (ASP) amendment (TSA-NA-20-02) related to the screening of aviation workers, AAAE has held a number of conversations in recent days with key committee and personal office staff in both the House and Senate. We have focused on the proposed shift of TSA's fundamental responsibility to screen persons and their property to airport operators during a time of unparalleled crisis for the aviation industry. We have stressed that such a fundamental change in airport operator security responsibilities, which also carries a significant and long-term cost, should, at a minimum, be carefully considered and fully understood and not forced into place through an ASP amendment.
It has become clear in our conversations with Congressional staff that while there is general support for additional physical screening of aviation workers our concerns about the process being pursued by TSA have resonated as a legitimate issue. As a result, we have requested language to direct TSA to undertake a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to understand the full impacts and costs for airports and the aviation industry. The NPRM process will ensure a full cost benefit analysis, will capture the comments of the entire aviation ecosystem (particularly air carriers and aviation workers), and will be subject to the rulemaking processes in place aimed at balancing the regulatory burden on non-Federal entities.
As we have previously reported, House and Senate Appropriators are working on finalizing appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021 before current funding expires on December 11. It is late in the process so gaining the inclusion of this request in the appropriations process will be incredibly difficult. To have any chance of success, we need airport help with direct input to Members of Congress at this critical junction.
Call to Action
As the Appropriations Committee finalizes their FY 2021 spending bill for DHS, we need your input to help elevate concerns airport operators have about requiring employee screening through an airport security amendment. Please contact your Representative and Senators, especially those on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as soon as possible and ask them to require TSA to pursue any changes in this area via a NPRM rather than by imposing an ASP amendment on your airport.
Talking Points:
AAAE has shared this issue paper and proposed legislative language with Congressional staff. Please feel free to use this in conjunction with your facility specific impacts. As always, we would greatly appreciate knowing about your outreach efforts and response from your elected officials so please share when possible.
As a reminder, comments on the proposed ASP amendment on aviation workers are due to TSA on December 7. Please submit comments to TSA in addition to any outreach that you may do with your elected officials.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need any additional information.
In response to concerns we have received from a number of airports across the country regarding TSA's proposed Airport Security Program (ASP) amendment (TSA-NA-20-02) related to the screening of aviation workers, AAAE has held a number of conversations in recent days with key committee and personal office staff in both the House and Senate. We have focused on the proposed shift of TSA's fundamental responsibility to screen persons and their property to airport operators during a time of unparalleled crisis for the aviation industry. We have stressed that such a fundamental change in airport operator security responsibilities, which also carries a significant and long-term cost, should, at a minimum, be carefully considered and fully understood and not forced into place through an ASP amendment.
It has become clear in our conversations with Congressional staff that while there is general support for additional physical screening of aviation workers our concerns about the process being pursued by TSA have resonated as a legitimate issue. As a result, we have requested language to direct TSA to undertake a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to understand the full impacts and costs for airports and the aviation industry. The NPRM process will ensure a full cost benefit analysis, will capture the comments of the entire aviation ecosystem (particularly air carriers and aviation workers), and will be subject to the rulemaking processes in place aimed at balancing the regulatory burden on non-Federal entities.
As we have previously reported, House and Senate Appropriators are working on finalizing appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021 before current funding expires on December 11. It is late in the process so gaining the inclusion of this request in the appropriations process will be incredibly difficult. To have any chance of success, we need airport help with direct input to Members of Congress at this critical junction.
Call to Action
As the Appropriations Committee finalizes their FY 2021 spending bill for DHS, we need your input to help elevate concerns airport operators have about requiring employee screening through an airport security amendment. Please contact your Representative and Senators, especially those on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees as soon as possible and ask them to require TSA to pursue any changes in this area via a NPRM rather than by imposing an ASP amendment on your airport.
Talking Points:
- On behalf of _______, I want to make you aware of concerns I have with a proposed TSA airport security program (ASP) amendment on employee screening that would have significant impacts at my airport and ask that you act to include a provision in the final FY 2021 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to require TSA to instead issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to understand the full impacts, costs, and benefits of their proposal for airports and the aviation industry.
- Mitigating against the insider threat is a priority for our airport and our industry and we are committed to working with TSA to meet our shared responsibilities in this area, but the current ASP amendment proposal would fundamentally change the role of airport operators and introduce new screening requirements that would have significant operational and financial impacts that could result in the duplication of effort and dilute the effectiveness of scarce security-related funding – at a time when airport resources are already heavily constrained.
- At my airport…Please provide specific details about the cost and operational considerations at your airport, including estimated personnel costs, training costs, hours of proposed screening relative to flight operation hours, and any other facility specific impacts that the proposed ASP amendment will have on your airport.
- These are significant changes that require careful consideration, a thorough evaluation of the costs and benefits, and the ability of the entire aviation industry to comment – none of which will happen outside of a NPRM.
- TSA is poised to move quickly by imposing the ASP amendment, so please include a provision in the final FY2021 spending bill to require an NPRM to ensure that this effort is thoughtful and effective.
AAAE has shared this issue paper and proposed legislative language with Congressional staff. Please feel free to use this in conjunction with your facility specific impacts. As always, we would greatly appreciate knowing about your outreach efforts and response from your elected officials so please share when possible.
As a reminder, comments on the proposed ASP amendment on aviation workers are due to TSA on December 7. Please submit comments to TSA in addition to any outreach that you may do with your elected officials.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or need any additional information.
