The Transportation Safety Act Of 9 / 11 : Aviation And Transportation Security Act

According to Jason Villemez of the PBS News Hour, there were immediate changes to airport security following 9/11. Within 2 months of the attacks, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act was passed. This law requires that every single bag is screened at airports andrequires that certain procedures are followed at every airport (Swickard). Before 9/11, scissors, baseball bats, darts, and 4-inch-long blades were allowed, but these are now illegal under the ATSA (O’Connor). The Aviation and Transportation Security Act also created the Transportation Security Administration known as the TSA (Tognotti). Each airport had to supply their own security before 9/11, but with the creation of the TSA, the government supplied security for airports (Villemez). Gabi Logan of USA Today found that the increase in security including baggage checks caused a six percent decrease in the number of passengers. Passengers chose not to travel at all or found a different way to get to their destination. While security in airports was significantly increased, 9/11 also affected millions of Americans involved in the war on terror”.

The Travel security agency, or the TSA, is an important agency whose job it is to protect our nation in airports and borders. Impressively, the Agency has stopped many weapons, and saved our citizens numerous times. According to several experts however, the TSA has never stopped a terrorist plot. Their methods have been questioned too. As our nation grows deeper and deeper in debt, the TSA is a huge cost that may need to be cut. In order to gain a clear understanding of the TSA, its successes, issues, and cost must be evaluated critically.

The September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks forever changed the way our air travel industry operates. It affected the government, the airlines, airports, employees, and passengers alike. There was not as much of a threat of terrorism before 9/11, so airport security was not nearly as thorough, and at times intrusive as it is today. Through the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, the evolving threat of terrorism has not been successful in carrying out another 9/11 style attack.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics a total of 631,939,829 passengers boarded domestic flights in the United States in the year 2010. This averages to 1.73 million passengers flying per day (Cessoni.) All of these people must go through security checkpoints provided by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA.) TSA’s history, cost, and specific purpose are ideas I will discuss further.

In November of 2001, the United States was still reeling from the attacks on September 11 of that same year. President George W. Bush created a new organization to prevent future attacks on American flyers. The organization was called the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. The TSA was tasked with implementing security measures to protect travelers. At first, the measures were welcomed by the public. They were seen as a necessary measure to protect against future 9/11 style attacks. But now, 15 years later, the measures the TSA have put in place have been questioned repeatedly by members of the public, the press and congress. Incidents such as the Underwear Bomber, where a Nigerian

In order to understand what chages took place and why they had to change i have to look first at aviation security pre 9/11. I went digging around my local libraries archives and was not able to find much regarding federal operation of aviation protection before 9/11. So i switched to google scholor and happened upon a treasure trove of new information. Before 9/11 the respocibility of airport security  was not a purely federal government responcibility, it was divied up between 3 different groups: airport operators, airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration (Seidinstat). Each of these groups had a different roll.

The U.S. government took many steps to try to make the country safer. It tightened security at airports and in public buildings. A new cabinet-level department—the Department of Homeland Security was created. It works to protect the United States from any terrorist attacks (scholastic.com). The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) didn't exist before 9/11. The TSA was created to do three things: take responsibility for all modes of transportation; recruit, assess, hire, train and deploy security officers for 450 commercial airports from Guam to Alaska within 12 months; and provide 100 percent screening of all checked luggage for explosives. In the past, the TSA detected 50 million prohibited items, including 5,000 firearms on passengers attempting to board planes. Now, 50,000 TSA officers screen nearly two million air travelers each day

For Americans who travels on an everyday basis, many are greatful that Airport Security is enforced to protect the safety of the people. Overall in the past 15 years airports have appreciated these regulations even though it came about as a response to a misfortunate event. Homeland Security, the top dog over Airport Security, is aware that the system is constantly evolving. Newer threats are known to be present but TSA knows the issues that have happened and secures the world trust to protect the people. Everyone that travels today expects high level procedures to ensure safe travel. Due to this severe outcome to strictly enforce security in airports, there has not been another incident since September 11,

Thesis: Transportation was deeply impacted by events of 9/11 and other catastrophic events such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. TSA works with the NTSCOE collaboration in order to develop technology to combat terrorism. Transportation security relies on logistics to provide transparency, visibility, information security and agility for freedom of movement of goods. The transportation system is composed of independent subsystems that depend on each other to help identify vulnerabilities. A combination of automatic identification technologies (AITS), are essential for managing assets within the intermodal transportation system. In an effort to promote border security, several programs are being employed: temporary worker initiative,

According to allgov.com (2011), “The United States Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on November 19, 2001 in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The act established the TSA and placed it in the Transportation Department, charging it with hiring security screeners at some 450 commercial airports within 12 months.” The TSA is responsible for the protection of the United States’ transportation system including, airports, airplanes, mass transit systems, highways, railroads, and ports. As an economy, American business and individuals depend on the United States’ transportation system for not only commuting to work, but for shopping, socialization, business, access the healthcare, among other things. Suffice it to deficiencies in the transportation system could cripple the United States’ economy. Since its inception in 2001, the TSA program has faced many issues and problems, including but not limited to turnover, mistreatment by

This Act granted law enforcement the power to conduct searches and to detain those suspected to be terrorists. It also made great changes in immigration law and provided a better, more clear definition of terrorist since it was very broad. Following the attacks, airport procedures were modified in order to prevent from any other hijackers from taking over a plane. The U.S. airport system has changed its profiling procedures to include factors such as race, gender and age (Macdonald 132). In November of 2001, the Airport Security Federalization Act was passed. President Bush signed the bill, and this Act took effect in January of 2002. Airports across the United States implemented the new security measures. These measures were designed specifically to prevent from any explosives or bombs to be taken onto an airplane. Aside from metal detecting and the screening of bags and travelers, airports used profiling to combat terroristic acts. They used profiling based on the appearance of the traveler’s. If their appearance seemed to similar to that of a hijacker from 9/11, they would assume that there is a probability that a violation will

In November of 2001, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) resulting in the formation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which made aviation and other modes of transportation the responsibility of the federal government. The purpose of the ATSA was “to set up layers of security that would prevent future terrorist attacks.” (Dinneen, 2015). This act brought about new security measures, including screening passengers and luggage, in all 429 commercial airports across the nation. Secondly, all TSA employees must be American citizens, identity verification of law-enforcement and employees in secure areas of the airport. Lastly, implementing an enhanced “no fly” list preventing suspected or known terrorist from boarding commercial airlines. Although, enhancement of security in airports have prevented countless terrorist plots, however the funding and the accruing of an agency dedicated to the safety of transportation in the country still leaves a multitude of possible targets of terrorist

The September 11th attacks have had a profound effect on American history. Often referred to as “9/11”, these attacks were comprised of a group of organized terrorists known as Al-Qaeda. This extreme Islamic group assaulted several landmarks in New York City, Washington D.C, and the state of Pennsylvania. In New York City, two airliner jets were hijacked with passengers aboard and slammed into the World Trade Center. “The next attack resulted in a plane colliding into the Pentagon, government building; the last attack was in Pennsylvania when a plane crashed into a field. In total, 3,000 people died on September 11th, 2001” (History.com Staff). The September 11th-attacks have affected airport security by the new training of flight attendants, the formation of the Transportation Security Administration and new technical advances to keep up with increased terror threats.

The Transport Security Administration (TSA) is an American agency which is under the Department of Homeland Security and it has the authority and control of all the traveling public in the USA. It was formed as a reaction to the September 11, terrorist attacks in the country. It was created under the Aviation and Transport Security Act which was supported by Don Young who was a House of representative member. It was employed into law by President George Bush on November 19, 2001. It was first placed in the Department of Transportation, later on, it was placed in the Homeland Department. The agency is mostly concerned air travel and the provide the screening activities in the airport, ensure ad provide armed Federal Air Marshal’s on different planes and ensure there is no illegal weapon which may cause harm to the people on board. They also maintain a system of the wanted individual and the ones which might cause security risk in the aviation industry. They ensure that these individuals are not permitted in any airport for security purposes (Grover, 2015).

Following the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, the 107th Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, establishing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) ("History", 2014), and transferred the responsibility for civil aviation security from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to the TSA ("Statute and Regulation History", 2012). The Act was passed in just two months following the terrorist attacks, and likely would have passed even faster if it had not been for the question of whether government or private enterprise should conduct security screening ("Aviation Security Screeners, United States", 2004).