A Government Agency Held Accountable? How Can It Be?!?

Right after 9/11, one of the very actions that government strove to undertake was the creation of a new huge bureaucracy charged with protecting our transportation infrastructure. At the time, there were the cries of "But this bureaucracy will be different!," even as some lawmakers were expressing misgivings about such a bloated government endeavor. In the end, public pressure won out and the Transportation Security Administration was created.

Over the last few years, TSA has attempted to get its act together. It has subjected us to grandmothers being stripped searched, women being forced to consume their own breast milk, and the confiscation of untold thousands of nail clippers. We have been regaled with tales of the difficulties the TSA has had in finding quality personnel to man the checkpoints. We have witnessed TSA firing employees because they were hired without proper due diligence being conducted. We have stood there in line, holding our shoes instead of wearing them, wondering why TSA wasn't using some sort of profiling scheme. But most of all we fumed, because this time - despite the promises and assurances, things were the same.

But lawmakers, probably unintentionally, left us an out. Beginning November 19, three years to the day from the foundation of our newest bloated bureaucracy, airports can apply to opt out of government provided screeners.

The airports would have to hire in their own private security, supervised by TSA, of course. But in return they would have the freedom to staff as needed, when needed. No longer would the airline passengers be forced to adjust their schedule to the vagaries of government agency staffing plans. No longer would there be two screening stations open at 7 am and ten at 11 am (7 am is usually the big morning push, 11 is usually dead, awaiting the 12:30 arrivals). Instead, the airport could require the dictate to the screeners the right staffing for the flight schedule, rather than scheduling staff around the most convenient times for the employees.

The government and the unions have got to be starting to scramble, trying to figure out how they're going to stop the madness. For an airport like Melbourne, FL to go private is one thing - most people will never notice the difference, as they'll never go to Melbourne. But imagine if an Atlanta, a New York, or a Chicago goes private (don't expect to see Boston on that list until the very, very last moment, when John Kerry declares that he's been for security privatization ever since the day after he last voted for federalization). Start showing large segments of the traveling public the benefits of privatization and the game' up.

I'm guessing that when November 19 comes and the applications start rolling in, we'll probably see the unions cut a deal with the TSA to keep the big airports federalized. Some smaller airports will be privatized as a sop to the people, but the government will maintain its hold on the biggies.

And for most people, we'll hear the same refrain "But this time it will be different!"

And once again, nothing will fundamentally change. Accountability will still be a foreign concept to government agencies.