Security Policy Alert: Summary of TSA's Monthly Conference Call for Airport Stakeholders

February 6, 2020

This afternoon, TSA held its monthly conference call for airport stakeholders. The conference call was led by Alan Paterno, TSA's Airport Industry Engagement Manager in the office of Plans, Policy and Engagement (PPE).

Update from Policy, Plans and Engagement (PPE)

Aviation Division Reorganization: The Aviation Division under Policy, Plans and Engagement was recently reorganized into three branches: Airlines Policy Branch (led by Pedro Bordatto), Airports Policy Branch (led by Kevin Knott), and the Plans and Engagement Branch (led by Steve Jenkins). Kevin Knott is the Branch Manager for Airports Policy and, although he is new to this position, he is not new to TSA. He has been with the agency for 13 years and previously served as Industry Engagement Manager. Before TSA, Kevin was with American Airlines for 28 years and worked at BNA, CLT and DFW airports. Under the new structure, which goes into effect on February 16, 2020, Alan Paterno remains as the Airport Industry Engagement Manager and reports to Steve Jenkins in the Policy and Engagement Branch.

Coronavirus: Vera Adams, TSA's Aviation Division Executive Director, briefed about the on-going efforts related to coronavirus and public health screenings at 11 airports. TSA has issued Security Directives and Emergency Amendments to domestic and foreign air carriers based on the Presidential Proclamation regarding travel restrictions and exemptions related to passengers that have recently traveled to mainland China and may require public health screening upon their return to the United States. The SD and EA were issued on Saturday and updated again on Sunday when the list of airports was expanded from 7 to 11. The dialogue continues with impacted airports and air carriers and TSA is working closely with FAA, CBP, and CDC on stakeholder engagement. TSA is also posting relevant documents on the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) for airports and air carriers, including recent FAA guidance to crewmembers.

An airport operator on the call raised a question about conflicting guidance from CDC and local health departments about the efficacy of masks for healthy individuals and TSA's guidance to its own workforce regarding wearing masks. CDC and several local health departments do not recommend that healthy individuals wear a mask. On the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security's Chief Medical Officer has highly recommended that the TSA workforce at airports wear masks and TSA has provided masks for its employees at 17 airports. On the call, TSA maintained that wearing a mask is voluntary for its workforce and the adoption rate to date has been very low (estimated at about 5 percent). TSA agreed to share the written guidance regarding masks it provided its workforce with airport operators so that airport operators can make their own decisions regarding masks and the airport workforce. TSA has a video promoting the use of surgical masks among the workforce and has asked airports to help distribute the video. Due to conflicting guidance between CDC and TSA, many airports have chosen not to share the video.

TSA National Amendment 18-01: TSA stated that they have received several questions about TSA National Amendment (NA) 18-01 regarding Airport Access and Vetting and how it relates to the Airport Authorization Access to Commercial Establishments beyond the Security Checkpoint (AAACE) pilot program. TSA NA 18-01 superseded the AAACE pilot program (which was approved at 3 airports to allow non-travelers access the sterile area through the use of e-Secure Flight). Airports that choose to issue gate passes or sterile area authorizations must now follow the procedures outlined in Section I of TSA NA 18-01.

Proposed ASP Amendment on Rap Back: Comments on TSA NA 19-03 to make the Rap Back program mandatory for airport operators were due on January 20. TSA received 237 total comments across all three security programs - airports, air carriers and full all-cargo carriers. There were 126 airport-specific comments submitted by 7 airports, 2 associations and one Designated Aviation Channeler. TSA is currently reviewing the comments and will begin its internal comment adjudication process shortly.

PreCheck Enrollment Expansion

On January 9, TSA announced that the agency awarded PreCheck Expansion Other Transactional Agreements (OTAs) to three vendors (including the vendor that currently provides PreCheck enrollment services under an existing government contract). TSA expanded the number of PreCheck enrollment providers to meet a requirement passed by Congress as part of the TSA Modernization Act of 2018. The vendors must complete a number of steps before they can begin processing enrollments into the PreCheck program, including identifying enrollment locations, developing their TSA PreCheck enrollment systems, and ensuring compliance with TSA's latest cybersecurity requirements. TSA does not expect the vendors to begin processing enrollments until late 2020 and, as a result, does not expect any immediate impact to the program. TSA did state that airports may be approached by the vendors regarding enrollment locations and possible partnerships.

Under the OTAs, TSA does allow price variations among the vendors as some may seek to bundle services with other partners as part of a PreCheck enrollment package. TSA will also allow multiple PreCheck enrollment providers to have enrollment locations in a single airport. Vendors are responsible for location costs so the location is a business decision for the enrollment providers, including airport locations as decided between the airport operator and vendor.

TSA also addressed the recent announcement by DHS that New York residents will no longer be eligible to apply for or renew their enrollment in certain Trusted Traveler Programs like Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI. New York recently implemented the Driver's License Access and Privacy Act (Green Light Law). According to DHS, the law prohibits the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) from sharing information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and prevents DHS from fully vetting New York residents for these programs. However, because TSA does not rely on DMV information for its vetting of PreCheck passengers, New York residents are still eligible for PreCheck. New York residents that are current Global Entry members will continue to receive full benefits, including PreCheck, until their membership expires. TSA was not aware of any DHS plans to expand the Trusted Traveler restrictions to other states like Washington or New Jersey at this time. TSA also stated that this announcement does not impact the use of New York driver's licenses at the security checkpoint or for SIDA badge applications.

Janitorial Services

As AAAE previously reported, as part of its fiscal year 2020 budget request to Congress, TSA proposed eliminating payments to airports for janitorial services at security checkpoints and, as a result, Congress did not provide funding for this activity. TSA explained on the call today that although the agency has funded janitorial services since its inception, it was not required to do so. TSA proposed the funding elimination in response to current budget constraints and the need to shift funding to other priorities, including workplace benefits. TSA stated that it plans to communicate by letter to each impacted airport in the coming days and timing will depend on each airport's current period of performance based on existing agreements.

In response to questions on the call, TSA stated that the janitorial services did not apply to TSA's own equipment - TSA is responsible for cleaning its equipment, including Automated Screening Lanes. It also does not apply to other TSA areas, such as break rooms. TSA stated that since funding has been eliminated that the agency expects airports will now be responsible for the cost of janitorial services. TSA stated that the agency should have communicated sooner with impacted airports but will work to resolve concerns and provide a clearer understanding of expectations going forward. In response to a request from AAAE, TSA also pledged to provide communication to the broader industry in addition to letters to the impacted airports.

Resource Allocation Plan (RAP)

On January 23, TSA staffing budgets for the remainder of the agency's fiscal year 2020 were distributed to FSDs. Many FSDs have shared this information with airport operators or in the process of doing so now. TSA uses its Resource Allocation Plan (RAP) to determine each airport's staffing budget. The RAP process relies on 4 key drivers to determine TSA's staffing requirements for each location:

Each airport's configuration details (equipment and layout),
Flight schedule driven work demand,
Productivity rates and staffing standards established by TSA's Requirements and Capabilities Analysis, and
Shift schedule optimization standards (percentage of part-time, number of start times, break details, etc.).

These four factors determine each airport's base staffing requirement. TSA then also adds in funding for training, supervision, paid not worked time (meaning annual leave, sick leave, etc.) and staffing for Canine Enhanced Screening and Insider Threat screening.

According to TSA, the RAP process stayed fairly consistent with last year's process except for the following adjustments:

TSA is planning for an average 4.5% volume growth this summer. As with years past, the agency evaluates each airport's growth and forecasted growth (based on information shared by industry), historical growth trends, FAA forecasts, and published flight schedule data.
Due to challenging budget constraints, TSA reduced training requirements by 17 percent in order to shift resources to address volume growth.
TSA also adjusted the Transportation Security Manager allocations to move to a more uniform ratio between all airports. This resulted in a decrease in Transportation Security Managers at many locations that will be implemented over time through attrition.
TSA also updated several rates and standards with the most significant change being an increase in planned PreCheck throughput rates for some equipment, increased time to resolve alarms in baggage screening systems, and decreased time for ETD screening of domestic bags.

Looking ahead to summer, overtime was allocated at an average of 3 percent (TSA used 3.02 percent overtime last year). Several locations also adjusted their hiring plans to be able to hire up to a higher level ahead of summer. TSA is also working to schedule as much training and annual leave ahead of summer as possible. TSA believes it will be a challenging year for the agency and is doing all it can now to prepare for summer volume.

In response to concerns raised on the call regarding significant staff decreases despite continued passenger growth and negligible adjustments made for unique airport considerations, TSA promised to continue conversations on a local level between FSDs and airport operators as well as between HQ and the associations.

Next TSA Conference Call

The next TSA monthly conference call for airport stakeholders is scheduled for Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 1 p.m. ET.