Reassessing Airport Perimeter Security (H.R. 5056)

What is H.R. 5056?

(Updated July 18, 2017)

This bill would direct the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to update three different metrics of airport security. The first is the Transportation Sector Security Risk Assessment (TSSRA) for the aviation sector, which deals with airplane and airport weaknesses to potential terrorist threats. The last TSSRA was conducted in 2010.

The second metric that the bill would require the TSA to update is the Comprehensive Risk Assessment of Perimeter and Access Control Security for airports, which deals with the security of the area surrounding airports. The last assessment took place in May 2013, and it hasn’t been updated since then.

The third metric that the TSA would update is the 2012 National Strategy for Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security, which defines how the TSA secures airport perimeters in response to emerging threats. This standard hasn’t been updated recently, despite the TSA taking new actions to secure airport perimeters.

Argument in favor

The TSA hasn’t tested airport perimeter security for too long, and the only way to improve it is to know what holes there are.

Argument opposed

Airport perimeter security hasn’t been recently tested because it’s much less important than the security within airports.

Impact

Airports and their employees; the TSA.

Cost of H.R. 5056

The CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $500,000 or less per year, as the TSA already has most of the funding needed to implement the bill.

Additional Info

In Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) said in a statement to Politico that the bill would help address the comparatively weak security of airport perimeters:

“Perimeter security remains one of, if not our weakest, link in airport security. We cannot keep moving forward with business as usual because, as I see it, business is bad. I have recently introduced legislation entitled the Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act of 2016 that will continue moving the ball forward until our airport perimeters are as secure as they can be.”

Of Note: A May, 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that although the TSA has made some progress in assessing airport security, the TSA hasn’t taken significant steps to address the security issues that it found.

Media:

• CBO Cost Estimate

• Sponsoring Rep. Bill Keating (D-MA) Statement

• GAO

• GAO

• Dept. of Homeland Security