SPP protects TRA from shutdown

TUPELO, Miss. - The partial federal government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, has led to thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers not getting paid hasn’t affected security screening at the Tupelo Regional Airport (TRA). TSA screeners at some major airports have been calling in sick or simply not showing up to work. However, that’s not the case in Tupelo or 21 other airports – from Key West to Montana - that are part of the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP). In 2011, TRA became a member of the program, which contracts security screening services at commercial airports to qualified private companies. The companies run screening operations under federal oversight and must comply with all TSA security screening procedures. At TRA, screeners are paid by BOS Security of Georgia. The company is one of six contractors working in the Screening Partnership Program. Those firms “had the selling factor of not being federal,” TRA Executive Director Cliff Nash told Daily Journal, because they “aren’t civil service, and therefore the argument was they can provide better service. The contractors pay employees and therefore aren’t relying on the federal government. Last week, TSA officials said missing screeners was stabilizing 6.1 percent on Jan. 16. Last year on that date, there was a 5 percent absentee rate. But it’s down from the 7.7 percent surge Jan. 13. TRA air traffic controllers are also contracted by a third party and are not affected by the shutdown. (Source: Daily Journal 01/19/19) UPDATE 01/20/19: The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal employees, representing about 44,000 TSA workers, says some TSA employees have resigned, and others are considering quitting after working one of the busiest air travel periods of the year without pay.