NEWS RELEASE
WASHINGTON, December 12, 2005 – Air Transport Association (ATA) President and Chief Executive Officer James C. May testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today that the airline industry steadfastly supports the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) new risk-based analysis to respond to potential terrorist threats.
"The significance of the TSA action lies not so much in the specific screening and prohibited-list changes announced, but in the fact that they result from a deliberate and careful risk analysis," said May.
May added that the TSA has done precisely what the 9/11 Commission, members of Congress and industry have urged TSA to do: make rational judgments about security measures based on the best threat intelligence available, the state of security measures to address vulnerabilities and potential consequences, and to make cost-effective use of valuable limited resources.
May said he believes that TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley's announcement of a risk-based decision to determine appropriate modifications to the screening process has been embraced by members of Congress and is consistent with both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Act and the TSA Reorganization Act. "The airline industry firmly supports this methodology for determining appropriate responses to terrorist threats, which is critical to effectively defending aviation," said May.
May also testified that reinforced cockpit doors, the presence of onboard Federal Air Marshals, armed pilots under the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program, enhanced crew security training, available self-defense training for crewmembers and TSA screening of passenger bags have greatly improved aviation security since 9/11. "TSA has acted responsibly to focus attention on the next threat rather the last one," May added.
U.S. domestic airlines share DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's views that the country's security strategy must promote freedom, prosperity, mobility, and individual privacy, May said. "The measures needed to achieve these goals have a significant economic and operational impact on the U.S. airline industry and there is much work to be done to reduce that impact."
ATA provided the committee with three recommendations in areas that it believes need improvement:
- Consolidate U.S. government passenger-data collection requirements: Several agencies -- Customs and Border Protection, Centers for Disease Control, and TSA -- currently have, or are proposing to implement, overlapping passenger-data collection requirements. ATA proposes the deployment of a government-wide standard for airline passenger-data collected and a single collection point, to reduce duplication and inconsistent technical requirements.
- Establish one U.S. government agency to be responsible for resolving passenger-data privacy issues that arise with foreign governments: Failure to resolve these serious differences puts U.S. airlines in the untenable situation of complying with U.S. security-related information demands while running the risk of violating the data-protection laws of foreign countries.
- Clean up the so-called "watch lists" and get the Secure Flight program up and running: ATA long has said that aviation security should focus on people, not things. The first step to improve this capability is to get the Secure Flight program off the ground. DHS needs to work collaboratively with industry to develop an integrated pre-screening system for both domestic and international passengers.
May concluded his testimony by saying that Congress established TSA to secure all modes of transportation against terrorist threats and that it has given TSA both the tools to analyze those threats and the authority to implement appropriate security measures.
The Air Transport Association of America, Inc. is the trade association for leading U.S. airlines. ATA airline members transport more than 90 percent of all U.S. airline passenger and cargo traffic.
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