Banjos, Claymore mines and TSA love
February 25th, 2010 | Homeland Security | Posted by Stephen Losey
I was listening to Sirius XM’s alt-country station last night and heard what is surely the only banjo-driven love song ever written about a Transportation Security Administration screener: “TSA” by Texas musician Danny Barnes.
In the live clip below, Barnes says that his banjo brings him a lot of scrutiny from TSA because, apparently, its body is about the right size to hide a Claymore mine. And all the quality time he spent with airport screeners inspired lyrics like “her hair in a bun/her hand on her gun/we made love with the radio on.”
Being both a federal government reporter and a pretty amateurish banjo player, I got a kick out of this song. But the line about his TSA sweetheart’s “good paycheck [helping] to seal the deal” is a dead giveaway that Mr. Barnes has never heard federal unions talk about the PASS system.
TSA screeners could move back to General Schedule
July 7th, 2009 | Transportation Security Administration | Posted by Stephen Losey
The House Homeland Security Committee plans to mark up a bill on Thursday that would kill the Transportation Security Administration’s Performance Accountability and Standards System. In its place, HR 1881 would move roughly 45,000 screeners to the General Schedule system most federal employees are currently under.
Unions criticize the PASS pay-for-performance system as unfair, and say it is driving many screeners to leave TSA.
The bill would also grant collective bargaining rights to screeners, also known as transportation security officers. This would likely set off a battle between the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union to formally represent TSA. Unions are already jockeying for position to prepare for this vote.
Matt Dennis, a spokesman for Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said he’s optimistic that the bill will come for a vote before the full House. But Dennis was far from certain, and acknowledged that it’s hard to predict what will happen before Congress takes a recess later this summer. The bill now has no Senate companion.
Tags: General Schedule, PASS, screeners, TSA