Bipartisan bill introduced to help ease congestion at TSA screening checkpoints

A bipartisan coalition of representatives introduced legislation on Friday that would help ease congestion and long lines at Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) screening checkpoints at the nation’s airports.

The FASTER Act, H.R. 5340, would ensure that passenger security fees only go toward aviation security and prevents Congress from raiding the funds in the future. The bill was cosponsored by U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Bob Dold (R-IL).

“The airport security checkpoint wait times crisis did not occur overnight,” Thompson said. “To make sustained and measurable improvements, TSA needs an infusion of resources to be able to invest in its people and technology. TSA cannot continue to rely on temporary band-aids by moving around limited homeland security dollars. The fact that each year over a billion dollars of the fees TSA collects from every flyer is being diverted away from aviation security is a big part of the problem. The bipartisan bill we are introducing today will allow TSA to retain the fees it collects so it can properly staff airports around the country, operate as effectively as possible, and secure the American public.”

In FY 2015, passengers paid approximately $3.5 billion in aviation security fees. Only $2.3 billion of that amount, however, was used to offset the $6.8 billion cost of TSA’s aviation security expenses.