Congress unhappy with pace of screener checks WASHINGTON (AP) =97 Lawmakers asked Tuesday why the Transportation Security= =20 Administration has yet to complete background checks on half the 55,000=20 federal workers screening passengers and bags at the nation's airports.=20 They also noted that several airports have discovered screeners with=20 criminal backgrounds. "These reports are, to say the least, very=20 disturbing," said Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House=20 Appropriations homeland security subcommittee. The TSA administrator,=20 retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, rejected the idea that the hiring=20 process has serious problems. "This is a very, very thorough effort that we= =20 undertook," Loy told the panel. Charges of disarray "are simply not true."= =20 After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress ordered the government to take= =20 over screening duties from private companies at more than 400 airports. It= =20 gave the TSA a Nov. 19, 2002, deadline for putting the passenger screening= =20 force in place, and a deadline of Dec. 31, 2002, for screening all checked= =20 bags. Both deadlines were met. Loy said the TSA received more than 1.7 million applicants and interviewed= =20 around 340,000 people over a 10-month period. The FBI conducts a=20 fingerprint-based criminal history records check on each applicant, and a=20 private company, ChoicePoint, checks credit, criminal and employment=20 histories. The federal Office of Personnel Management then carries out a=20 final investigation similar to that given to workers receiving secret=20 clearances. The OPM's Stephen Benowitz said of 55,000 screeners already=20 employed at airports, the OPM still is working on more than 12,000 cases=20 and has yet to receive completed documents for another 17,500. Loy said the= =20 agency has fired 1,208 screeners, almost half for providing false=20 information on applications, others on revelations of drug or other felony= =20 convictions or other crimes. "One mistake or one unsavory character and you= =20 have one huge, potentially fatal circumstance on your hands," Rep. Rogers= said. But Loy said almost every screener has undergone the FBI background inquiry= =20 and ChoicePoint's first phase investigation, which includes credit and=20 criminal database checks and cross-checks with selected terrorist databases. He said some delays have occurred because of a switch in contractors, but=20 he expects that all OPM checks and TSA decisions would be completed by Oct.= =20 1. "Recent media reports may create the perception that we haven't done=20 enough background checking; to the contrary, in fact we have done more than= =20 is necessary," Loy said. OPM's Benowitz said his agency believes "that TSA= =20 is working diligently to clear any backlog of investigation requests and=20 submit them to OPM." Rogers cited recent reports that 50 screeners at New=20 York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, 24 in Los Angeles and another= =20 38 in Miami, among other cities, were discovered to have had criminal=20 backgrounds. Loy said any person found to have been convicted of any one of= =20 28 criminal offenses within the past 10 years is disqualified from working= =20 as a screener. He said problematic employees are immediately taken off the= =20 job and either fired or cleared within 72 hours. He said some, who may have= =20 been arrested but not convicted for one of the 28 offenses or have had a=20 record in such other areas as driving or tax violations, might be retained. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************