TSA fees up, teams that patrol airports down in Trump budget

Bart Jansen | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The Transportation Security Administration would have higher airline ticket fees, but fewer teams that patrol the public areas of airports and fewer officers at airport exits, under President Trump’s budget released Tuesday.

Ticket fees would rise from $5.60 to $6.60 for each connecting flight, to generate about $530 million more for aviation security, according to Allen Blume, the Department of Homeland Security’s budget director. Congress diverted a portion of the ticket fee in a previous spending agreement to pay for deficit reduction.

The department projects a 4% increase in travelers in the next fiscal year, so it provides for 629 more checkpoint screeners, Blume said.

But as part of $1 billion in reduced annual spending at the agency, TSA would have 1,794 fewer officers at airport exit lanes, Blume said. The number of Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, which patrol public areas of airports beyond security checkpoints, along with bus and train stations, would drop from 31 to eight, he said. And a grant program to reimburse state and local police for security would be eliminated, to save $45 million, he said.

“This budget is fiscally responsible and, as with every department and agency, we had to make some tough trade-offs,” said Chip Fulghum, the department’s acting undersecretary for management.

Congress will spend months debating the proposals, and could change or ignore them. But they illustrate the administration's priorities.

Airlines complain about the ticket fee discouraging travel. Airports are upset TSA will abandon staffing at exit lanes, which don't have checkpoints but ensure that unscreened people don't wander into the gate area. And lawmakers criticize the drop in VIPR teams.

“Penny wise and pound foolish – that’s really the only way to describe a budget that mortgages the security of the traveling public by slashing highly effective canine teams that help protect our airports and transit stations from terrorists,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate panel that oversees that airline industry.

Todd Hauptli, CEO of the American Association of Airport Executives, said the budget shirks its duty on staffing exit lanes and reimbursing local police.

“It bears repeating – the executive proposes and the Congress disposes,” Hauptli said.

Fulghum said the administration is adding screeners to meet the demands of the traveling public, but decided that VIPR teams and local police grants could be dropped.

“We had to make tough choices in the budget,” he said. “When we looked at the VIPR teams, and how they complemented state and local law enforcement, we felt that it was an acceptable risk to take.”