While Congress continues to battle over homeland security legislation, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers are finally getting paid through an executive order. That’s a relief, but the collateral damage of the partial shutdown cannot be undone. Hundreds of airport screeners quit, and travelers waited in hours-long security lines.
All of this started because Republicans and Democrats disagreed over immigration enforcement changes in a government funding package. President Donald Trump kept insisting that Congress first pass an unrelated bill for more election regulations. It makes no sense for all of this unrelated political squabbling to ruin so many Americans’ travel plans.
There is a better strategy Congress can pursue: privatize security screening at the nation’s airports. That means contracting out screening operations to expert security firms and shrinking the government’s role to regulatory oversight and intelligence. Privatization may sound radical, but that security structure is standard in European and Canadian airports.
You can read the rest of this op-ed in the Houston Chronicle here.
