No checks for bombs in certified air cargo

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is planning to allow cargo packed by approved shippers to be loaded onto passenger airplanes without any further inspection for bombs, despite a new law requiring freight shipments to receive the same level of scrutiny as checked suitcases.


Earlier this month, President Bush signed a bill into law that requires some type of inspection of all freight carried on passenger planes. The airline industry had fought such a requirement, contending that it would be too slow and costly. When Republicans controlled Congress, the industry succeeded in getting the legislation blocked. But in late July, Democrats passed the measure.

The new law was celebrated as a victory by pilot and flight attendant unions, as well as its main congressional champion, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Malden. Markey put a video of a triumphant House floor speech on his website, proclaiming "After four years, Representative Markey wins his fight to ensure 100 per cent screening of cargo on passenger planes."

But the Transportation Security Administration, which was given three years under the law to develop a full inspection program, says it is interpreting the statute to allow boxes sealed by government-certified shippers to be loaded directly on planes. TSA spokesman Christopher White said freight "is inherently screened" if it is packed with tamper-evident seals at a facility that meets federal security standards.

Airline unions and air-safety advocates said they expected that under the new law freight would be either X-rayed or inspected by hand, just like bags checked by passengers. They said the Bush administration's decision to implement the new law with a "certified shippers" program is only a slight improvement over the current system, which allows cargo from "known shippers" to be loaded directly onto passenger planes. The only difference is that "known shippers" merely register with the TSA and do not have to meet security standards.

"As usual, the TSA is working to circumvent what we want and what we feel is the best type of security," said Captain Paul Onorato, president of the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations. "The [checked] bags that go to the airport have inspection machines up on the deck where they run it through. That's what we want" for cargo.

Markey, for his part, said he is reserving judgment until the TSA's procedures are finalized. But the early signs, he said, show that "it will be necessary to very closely monitor how this law is implemented."

"I am outraged that the Bush administration and the airline industry would even think that they could get away with anything less than a full physical screening of all cargo that goes onto passenger planes," Markey said.

Markey has crusaded since 2003 to require the inspection of all cargo that is placed alongside luggage in passenger planes. He has filed six bills and eight amendments, called four press conferences, and issued 17 news releases. He is known for using props to demonstrate how terrorists could plant bombs in airline cargo.
But the passenger airline industry had stoutly resisted any such requirement, saying it would cause delays that could jeopardize $4.3 billion per year in cargo business for air carriers.

The airline industry has also long insisted that machines do not exist that can screen certain densely-packed cargo boxes. But Markey has pointed to neutron-pulsing scanning machines that have been tested at several airports. The company that makes the machines says they can inspect large shipments of cargo without unpacking them.

Despite Markey's calls for action, the Bush administration had been unwilling to impose such a regulation on its own, and Republican leaders in Congress had blocked Markey's attempts to enact a law requiring such screening. Immediately after Democrats won control of Congress in the November 2006 election, airline industry lobbyists expressed fear that Markey would get his bill passed.

"If you have 100 percent physical inspection of cargo, you are basically going to shut that part of the economy down," said Jim May, president of the Air Transport Association, days after the election.

Nonetheless, the Democratic-controlled Congress passed Markey's proposal as part of the 9/11 Commission Report Implementation Act, which Bush signed Aug. 3.

The statute requires the TSA to set up a cargo-screening system that will "provide a level of security commensurate with the level of security for the screening of passenger checked bags" within three years. Many supporters of the bill assumed that meant that individual shipments of cargo would have to be screened in the same manner as checked bags, which are either X-rayed or physically inspected.

The statute says the TSA must require more than a simple check of a shipment's paperwork against a database of registered shippers. The law requires that if such data checks are used, they must be paired with a physical check or screening method approved by the TSA.

The statute does not require the screening to be performed on the airport premises or specify any screening method, but lists several examples of methods that would suffice, including X-ray machines, explosive detection systems, bomb-sniffing dogs, and a physical search.

But White, the TSA spokesman, said the agency believes the law will be satisfied merely if cargo comes from a "certified" facility, one that meets certain security standards. He said the agency is also considering whether to require tamper-evident seals on cargo shipments. Together, such precautions would be good enough, he said.

The Air Transport Association, a lobbying group for the airline industry, declined to comment on the new screening law. Instead, it pointed a reporter to a little-noticed statement put out by its president when Congress passed the bill. At the time, May praised the law though he had previously spent years saying Markey's proposal would bring disaster.

"Congress prudently adopted legislation that incorporates a multi-layered approach to cargo screening, balancing the need for enhanced security with the free flow of commerce," May said.

Shane Larson, the government affairs director for the Association of Flight Attendants, said it sounded as if the TSA and the airline carriers had agreed to interpret the law in a way that would allow for minimal changes, contrary to "what we believe is the intent of the law."

Markey said he is willing to give the TSA a chance to demonstrate that a "pack and seal approach" could really achieve the same level of security screening for bombs that checked luggage receives at airports, but expressed doubts.

If Congress decides that the final regulations for freight security are not truly "commensurate" with the level of security that checked bags receive, Markey said, he and other lawmakers will seek to change them.

"There will be very vigorous congressional oversight that ensures that the Bush administration has complied with the requirement that all of the cargo placed on passenger planes is actually screened for bombs," Markey said.

"If the Bush administration tries to bend the law, it is going to discover that there is a new sheriff in town."