By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Agency are making progress in aviation security, but not fast enough, according to a government report.

In the area of aviation security, homeland security generally achieved 17 of the 24 its performance expectations, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.

Among the expectations TSA has accomplished were setting training standards for and testing airport screeners, screening of employees, training and deploying federal air marshals on high-risk flights, establishing a program for flight deck officers to use firearms, passenger screening, baggage screening and hiring a workforce.

The areas that need improvement are in air cargo screening technologies, airport perimeter security, standards for accessing secured areas, develop and implement a domestic an international passenger prescreening process, and no fly terrorist watch lists.

The agencies also need to deploy checklist technologies to address vulnerabilities, and to establish procedures for implementing biometric identifier systems for airport secured areas, the report said.

At the top of the DHS list of things that need to be accomplished are an advanced passenger prescreening system called secure flight, a profiling filter, checkpoint screenings and technology to screen air cargo shipments.

News of the agencies' progress came after Cathleen Berrick, director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues, testified about the report at a recent subcommittee on TSA and infrastructure protection in the House Committee on Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.

“TSA has faced challenges in developing and implementing its passenger prescreening system,” Berrick said, according to the GAO document. “Secure flight has not yet completed development efforts. As planned, this program would initially assume from air carriers the responsibility for matching information on airline passengers traveling domestically against terrorist watch lists.”

Secure flight is an airline passenger-prescreening program currently under development by the TSA. The program is intended to compare passenger information from passenger name records, which contain information given by passengers when they book their flights, against watch lists maintained by the federal government.

In November 2004, TSA ordered 72 commercial airlines to turn over their passenger records from the month of June 2004 to test the new system.

Secure flight has been criticized by personal rights groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center. DHS has since revised the program, but Berrick did not elaborate on new details of the program's changes. Secure flight is now scheduled for re-introduction in 2010.

DHS is mandated by the Patriot Act and the 9/11 commission to share passenger information gathered by the aviation industry among federal, state and local agencies, as well as tribal governments and appropriate private entities.

Credit card companies, banks, hotels and rental car agencies were listed as some of the possible private entities that were initially listed in the secure flight plan as possible recipients.

According to the report, TSA initially hired 50,000 passenger and checked baggage screeners, and installed baggage checking equipment at more than 400 airports nationally after a 2001 security mandate that Congress issued.

While passenger pre-screening has been strengthened the security of commercial aviation systems, efforts face a number of key challenges to meet their objectives, according to Berrick.

The departments' visibility and the Congressional mandates have created an environment of scrutiny. Berrick implied that a lack of funding, which some say are unfunded mandates, are slowing down what is essentially a whole new aspect of security in the U.S.

“DHS and its components have not always been transparent, which has affected our ability to perform our oversight responsibilities in a timely manner,” Berrick said.

One concern that has not surfaced with the general public is how flight delays are related to the screening processes used. Airlines must transmit passenger lists before flights can leave their gates, according to the report.

Airlines sometimes bump passengers waiting for screening up to 45 minutes before flights are scheduled to leave, slowing down the scheduled flight process at airports nationwide, according to airline officials.

Currently air carriers departing the U.S. are required to transmit to Customs and Border Protection passenger manifest information 15 minutes before departure, but for flights bound for the U.S. air carriers are not required to transmit their manifests until 15 minutes after the flight's departure.

Beginning Feb. 19, carriers will either have to transmit manifest information 30 minutes before the flight's departure or on an individual basis as each passenger checks in for the flight, up to but not later than the aircraft closes its doors.