This week’s efforts to reign in the catastrophe that is the TSA comes in the form of a bill introduced with 25 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. The bill, H.R. 3608, is titled the "Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy Act’’ or the "STRIP Act." OK, so they get points for coming up with a cute acronym (I wonder which congressional staffer has that job…) but the purpose of the bill is pretty ridiculous. The entire focus of the bill is to force the TSA to stop calling their employees "Officers" and to stop giving them badges unless they have actual federal law-enforcement training.
OK, fine. The title is stupid, as are the badges, particularly because the people doing the work aren’t officers. But is this really the best thing that Congress can come up with to fix the problem? They say that it is necessary because a woman was raped by an agent who showed his badge or because an agent was arrested for impersonating an officer. Perhaps if they fired and prosecuted the idiot agents who break the law rather than "retraining" them the problems would diminish. But saying that the woman was raped because the guy had a badge is pretty insulting.
Seriously, Congress, get your head out of your collective arse. If you want to fix the TSA there are plenty of ways to do so. Changing the uniforms or the titles of the folks screening passengers and bags at the airport isn’t anywhere close to the top of the list.
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- SSI only secret when it is convenient
- Strong words for (and from) the TSA
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This one is low on the list. But it IS on the list. And at least someone is paying attention TO the list. Although it won’t go anywhere.