Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if there is one specialty that every Member of Congress has, it is air travel. We spend more time on airplanes, more time in airports, more time waiting for flights and worrying about flights than most other Americans.

As Members of Congress, we are veterans of air travel.

We have all seen the footage of people waiting to go through security screening at major airports, particularly in the city of Chicago at both O'Hare and Midway. The lines are so long that people have had to wait 2 to 3 hours--2 to 3 hours to go through a security checkpoint.

People are angry, and I don't blame them. Thousands of people have missed their flights, and some were stuck sleeping in airports overnight. The commissioner of aviation, Ginger Evans, told me: We pulled out the cots that we save for snow emergencies so that people now, in the heat of early summer, are facing the same kinds of delays.

Our highest priority is to protect those who travel on our airplanes. Poor planning and inadequate funding have led to alarming delays across airports in America, and in Chicago we have felt it more than most. More needs to be done to fix the problem. That is what I have been working to do.

Earlier this week, I talked to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on the phone about the next steps. Yesterday, I followed up with a call to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger to hear his thoughts. We all agree that the real problem is the shortage of TSA screeners. More people need to be hired and trained so security lines can stay open and people can move through the checkpoints faster.

In the meantime, there are immediate steps we need to take in Chicago. First, we are going to get 58 more TSA screening officers in the next 2 weeks and 224 by August. That is about a 15-percent increase in TSA staff, and it is a good start.

O'Hare will also receive 5 K-9 teams. That will double the number of K-9s we have at the airport. Two teams were brought in yesterday, and the rest will arrive within 5 days. These bomb-sniffing dogs do important work. They check carry-on baggage. If there is no problem, the passengers can move out of the standard line and into the expedited line. These dogs can help us speed up the process by allowing up to 5,000 additional passengers a day to move through the faster security lines.

There will also be a shift of 100 TSA staff from part-time to full- time status so more people can be on deck to help with the lines. And officers who currently work on nondirect security functions are going to be called to pitch in and help officers at the checkpoints.

We are also working to get more people enrolled in TSA PreCheck. I can't emphasize enough how important that is. For $85, a regular traveler can buy--or at least apply for and be given--a TSA PreCheck status for 5 years. PreCheck lines can scan nearly twice as fast as the ordinary lines. Customers don't have to wait as long or remove their shoes, belts, or light jackets. We need to make sure more people are hearing about this option and are signing up for it as quickly as possible.

TSA is now working on a mobile app to help people get enrolled while they are waiting in lines, and they are also looking at lowering PreCheck signup costs by competing out the actual function of signing up for PreCheck. PreCheck has gotten a lot of traction, especially in Chicago, where this past month alone we have seen 5,700 new enrollments. I hope we can continue to quickly expand this program to help more people into the faster lines.

The airlines have to be part of the solution as well. I am glad Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut is on the floor because both he and Senator Markey of Massachusetts spoke out early on this aspect that I am about to address.

Airlines can help us by reducing high wait times, especially during the peak summer season. I have joined my colleagues Senator Blumenthal and Senator Markey in urging the airlines to suspend the checked bag fees over the summer. A lot of people are dragging their bags on the airplanes because they don't want to pay to have them checked. On Monday, I spoke with Secretary Johnson, who told me baggage fees are contributing to long lines because more people are carrying on luggage that should be carefully screened through check-in.

Over the last year, the volume of passengers and personnel passing through security checkpoints has increased 7 percent while the number of checked bags has increased only 3 percent. That tells the story: More people are carrying on their luggage and causing problems as more travelers pack their roller bags to the brim, making the bags take even longer to be scanned. Waiving the checked baggage fee during the summer travel season can reduce the incentive for passengers to carry-on luggage, and it can help speed up the process.

Let me also add that it is in this baggage that people are dragging onboard that TSA screeners are finding things that aren't supposed to be on an airplane. Last year, they found 2,653 firearms, and 83 percent of them were loaded. Most of them were from one State; I will not name it. But by and large, we have to be more mindful of the fact that this stops the process or at least slows it down.

I am convening a meeting with Administrator Neffenger tomorrow, along with State and local officials and airlines at Chicago O'Hare, and then we are also going to be visiting the Midway airport. We will see firsthand what airlines are experiencing and what their response is. We have to stop this meltdown when it comes to airport security.

Let me close by saying this: The news today about EgyptAir was a grim reminder that we still live in a very dangerous world. The role and responsibility of the Transportation Security Agency is to make sure that when we and our families travel, we come off those planes just as safely as we went on. It is an important security responsibility. Yes, it is an irritation and a frustration, but we need to do it in this dangerous world to make sure that we stop people from using their carry-on baggage and other sources to cause harm to innocent people.

I stand behind TSA and its mission, but what happened in Chicago is unacceptable. This meltdown should have been avoided. There should have been better management, more screeners, and we should have been ready for the surge in passengers. Beginning this week, we are going to make that right. I hope the visit by the TSA Administrator tomorrow will be the beginning of a conversation that will not only help our airports in Chicago but also help our Nation.

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