For Immediate Release

June 18, 2004

TSA APPROVES ADDITIONAL SCREENERS FOR SEA-TAC AIRPORT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said today that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has approved the immediate hiring of 50 new baggage screeners at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, responding to higher-than-expected passenger volume and the consequent screening delays that have arisen recently.

            The congressman said he learned from Acting TSA Administrator David M. Stone this morning that the agency had approved the urgent request he made to the agency on behalf of Sea-Tac.  He said Stone had approved the hiring of 50 "full-time equivalent" positions, which would result in the addition of an estimated 81 workers for the screening shift work at the airport.
            He said the new employees would be hired from a pool of pre-qualified individuals, and that they could be on the job by mid July.
            Rep. Dicks had alerted TSA to the bag screening lines that had recently been delaying departing passengers for up to 45 minutes.  Based on the experience from last year, when he had obtained TSA approval for members of the agency's "mobile screening force" to be shifted to Sea-Tac for the busy summer months, the congressman urged the TSA official to approve a permanent addition to the Sea-Tac force.

            "I am encouraged that TSA has responded quickly to this request, and that it understands the unique situation at Sea-Tac airport, where the summer tourist season results in tremendous increases in passenger volume."  The congressman noted that the increase in passenger volume at Sea-Tac this year has reached almost nine percent -- three times the amount Sea-Tac officials had projected.

            In addition to serving on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Dicks was also named to the Select Committee on Homeland Security last year, with oversight responsibility for the TSA.  He apprised the acting TSA Administrator of the Sea-Tac problem after one of the panel's recent congressional hearings.

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