Copyright 2002 The Denver Post 
All Rights Reserved  
The Denver Post
July 11, 2002 Thursday 1ST EDITION
SECTION: DENVER & THE WEST; Pg. B-01

LENGTH: 668 words

HEADLINE: Bag-screen timetable under fire Deadline may be pushed back

BYLINE: By Jeffrey Leib, Denver Post Staff Writer,

BODY:
The once-rigid, year-end deadline for U.S. airports to screen  all checked bags for explosives might be pushed back, according to  two federal lawmakers.

National security experts have argued that the Dec. 31  deadline, imposed after last September's terrorist attacks, is  impossible to meet, and Denver International Airport has led a  coalition of airports asking for flexibility in meeting the  deadline.

And now a study released by the California-based Reason  Public Policy Institute suggests Congress 'should revisit the  baggage-inspection issue, drawing on the experience of Europe and  Israel, which have many years of experience in dealing with  terrorist threats to aviation.'

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, expects to introduce  legislation soon to allow major airports like DIA and Dallas-Fort  Worth International to develop new timetables for the installation  of explosives-detection equipment.

'If we continue without adjusting this (deadline), airports  will spend millions of dollars to put in a (screening) process  that will not be effective and will eventually be scrapped later  on,' Granger said.  

Amy Bourgeron, a deputy aviation manager at  DIA, said the airport is 'very hesitant' about spending millions  of dollars on 'stopgap' security measures 'just to meet the deadline.'

'We strongly encourage that it be done right the first time,'  said Bourgeron, about DIA's hope that it can install machines that  automatically screen for explosives as part of a system integrated  with bag-hauling conveyors, out of sight of airport travelers.

Granger's proposal will allow airports to notify the  Transportation Security Administration by Nov. 1 whether they can  meet the Dec. 31 explosives-screening deadline. If an airport  needs more time, it and the TSA will settle on a new bag-screening  plan and deadline, Granger said.

Her measure also will allow airports to establish pilot  programs for testing new baggage-screening technologies.

DIA wants to use explosives-detection machines produced by  the German manufacturer Heimann Systems, but to date Heimann's  products have not been approved by the government.

The Heimann machines screen up to four times as many bags an  hour as machines now in use at U.S. airports, according to DIA.

Congress set the Dec. 31 deadline for 100 percent bag  screening last November when it passed a comprehensive aviation  security measure following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The law  also mandated that the Transportation Security Administration  replace all private screeners at airport security checkpoints with  federal employees by Nov. 19.

William Pickle, the agency's federal security director at  DIA, said his office will begin recruiting screeners for the  Denver airport in a few weeks.

Security experts say the government may meet the requirement  of replacing private security screeners with federal employees by  November, but it can't meet the Dec. 31 deadline for installing  thousands of explosives-detection machines and hiring tens of  thousands of additional workers to operate them.

'It's a given that they aren't going to make the deadline,'  said Gary Burns, an aide to Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., about the  explosives-detection deadline. Mica is the influential head of the  House aviation subcommittee.

The end-of-year deadline was 'unrealistic to begin with,'  Burns said, and Mica plans to hold congressional hearings on the  deadline issue.

Reason's report, 'Rethinking Checked-Baggage Screening,' also  said Congress' Dec. 31 mandate is impossible to meet.

It would cost about $ 3 billion to buy and install at least  1,100 large explosives-detection machines and 4,700 smaller  trace-explosives detection devices at U.S. airports, and another  $ 1 billion for the 22,000 federal workers that would have to be  hired to operate the machines, the Reason report said.

LOAD-DATE: July 11, 2002