FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I called up my amendment last week. This amendment would prohibit TSA employees from entering into collective bargaining agreements. A lot has happened since I called up my amendment. The Transportation Security Administrator announced his intent on Friday to proceed with allowing TSA security employees to collectively bargain. That would reverse a decade of policy--since the inception of TSA, actually. Currently, TSA employees are not allowed to collectively bargain. The 2001 law that created TSA gives this decision to the Administrator, and previous Administrators have understood that collective bargaining agreements for TSA could compromise our Nation's security. TSA employees have been treated like those of the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service for purposes of collective bargaining. These personnel are treated very well by our government and taken care of in other ways. But because of the security concerns, collective bargaining is prohibited for those security personnel.

Frankly, I think many observers would conclude that the current administration is intent on doling out rewards to campaign supporters and, therefore, is moving to reverse this decade-old decision and allow for collective bargaining among TSA employees. On November 12, 2010, the Federal Labor Relations Authority decided TSA employees will be allowed to vote on union representation, and then the decision came along on Friday to allow them to have collective bargaining rights.

I don't believe our country needs 50,000 TSA screeners to be part of a union. But the Obama administration does. Adding workers to union rolls has been a high priority of the administration since day one. As I pointed out, the FBI, the CIA, and the Secret Service do not have collective bargaining rights because burdensome union demands could limit the ability of those responsible for security at some of the most high-risk targets and hamper them in getting their job done.

Let me review a little bit of history. When a British airliner bombing plot was uncovered in 2006, the TSA overhauled security procedures in a matter of 12 hours to deal with the threat of liquid explosives. They had to act very quickly and flexibly. It is difficult to imagine that kind of flexibility under inflexible union rules.

In 2006, following a severe midwestern snow storm, local TSA employees were unable to get to the airport, but TSA was able to fly personnel in temporarily from other airports to cover these snowed-in personnel. This helped keep the airport open and the security lines moving. I wonder how injecting collective bargaining into this type of situation would have impacted TSA's ability to be flexible, to be quick on its feet, and to move personnel around.

There is also the issue of testing and rollout of software to protect the privacy of passengers utilizing advanced imaging technology. This should be done on the basis of national security and passenger safety and privacy concerns, and not delayed because of union concerns or intervention in the management of TSA employees.

I would reiterate, TSA has existed for almost 10 years without collective bargaining, and there is no legitimate policy reason to change this procedure at this time.

Working with Senator Collins, who I believe is prepared to also speak today, I have modified my amendment to make it clear that TSA employees have the baseline protections that almost all our Federal employees have, while preserving the flexibility needed to keep our Nation safe. The modified amendment would codify the 2003 TSA policy that prohibits collective bargaining agreements with security screeners. We do not need to limit the flexibility to respond immediately to emerging and evolving threats.

My amendment would also allow the Merit Systems Protection Board to hear adverse employment actions, such as demotions or firings, so TSA employees would have the same protections as other Federal security employees.

Also, if these modifications are accepted unanimously today, they would codify protections under the Whistleblowers Protection Act and would create an employee engagement process for workplace issues. My amendment simply adds these protections into the statute.

I would also point out that it is the public employees union contracts that States are grappling with today. Several of our States are literally facing bankruptcy because of the expensive and burdensome government union employee contracts--Illinois, New Jersey, California. The Governors, on a bipartisan basis, are struggling to get out from under these burdens and to free their States from these expensive public employee union contracts. They are causing the bankruptcy of States.

In the U.S. Government, we have the ability to deficit spend, and that is quite a problem. We will spend $1.5 trillion this fiscal year that we don't have, and the American public is demanding that we do something about it. It is unimaginable to me that under those circumstances the Obama administration is taking action which can only make TSA more expensive and make dealing with our employees there more costly and add to the debt. I don't see any way around it.

As States and localities are moving in one direction, here comes the Obama administration and, swimming upstream on this issue, proposing to add to the public employee union collective bargaining regime some 40,000 to 50,000 additional Americans. I don't see how we can afford that. I don't see how it helps security or helps our Nation to adopt some more burdensome requirements, and I don't see how it helps national security.

I would urge my colleagues to vote in favor of Wicker amendment No. 14. That vote may occur as early as tomorrow morning, but I would urge its adoption. This is an issue that is not going to go away. It is going to be taken up in the other body. We are going to be following this issue, and it is something I think Americans feel strongly about.

At this point I would urge the adoption of my amendment.

I yield the floor.

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