Congress and the TSA Disagree Over Security Screenings for Military Members

On Wednesday, a congressman in the House of Representatives said that the Transportation Security Administration is violating his law, which President Obama made official when he signed int on January 3. The law calls for expedited airport screening for people serving in the military.

The TSA official who spoke to the House Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation security, however, said that the agency was already expediting security for the troops. Chris McLaughlin, TSA's assistant administrator for security operations, said that military members faced a reduced likelihood of pat-downs and that members in uniforms are not required to remove their shoes or boots unless the alarm sounds. Wounded veterans and veterans visiting the nations capital on so-called "honor flights" also receive an expedited screening.

The TSA and the congressman disagree over the scrutiny that troops traveling in uniform receive at security checkpoints. The agency does not want to have the same screening for everyone, but instead, they want to give more intense security to those who pose the biggest risk. Passengers who provide information about themselves for the Pre-check program, for example, receive an expedited security screening by keeping their shoes on and keeping their laptops in their cases.

USA Today explains, "Rep. Chip Cravaack, R-Minn., himself a former pilot, was disturbed to see soldiers taking off uniform shirts, belts and boots for airport security despite having fought in Afghanistan." He proposed legislation that requires the TSA to "provide expedited security screening services" to uniformed members of the military who hand officials "documentation indicating official orders."

The agency is experimenting at two airports -- one close to Washington, D.C. and one in Seattle -- with a faster screening process for service members who have a military identification called the Common Access Card. For Cravaack, it's not good enough that the program exists in only two airport, and that it depends on a card.

"I consider it in violation of the law," Cravaack said.

McLaughlin disagrees. "We do believe we were compliant with the law before it was enacted," he said. "I believe we are compliant with the law because of work that we are already doing."

Todd Rosenblum is the deputy assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, and he said that the Common Access Card provides identification of the passenger with greater protections against forgery than paper documents.