WASHINGTON – Rural airports such as Durango and Gunnison might receive a boost in equipment spending thanks to a bill passed in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, tucked an amendment into the Department of Homeland Security spending bill that would transfer $4 million from the Transportation Security Administration’s administration budget, which can include expenditures such as payroll and other overhead, to the agency’s screening budget.
The $38.9 billion spending bill passed Thursday morning is far under the White House’s recommended budget, and the Obama administration has threatened a veto.
Tipton spokesman Josh Green said that cuts to the administration budget made sense.
“It’s good to prioritize those dollars to the mission of the agency, and that’s passenger safety,” Green said.
With money earmarked for equipment spending, “Gumby” may make a triumphant return to Durango and other small, rural airports. The Gumby, known formally as the L-3 body scanner, is an airport body-screening device that produces a cartoon-shaped image of the passenger. It replaced the more invasive Rapiscan units, which produced a more detailed image of the passenger’s body. Although the TSA agent screening these images was placed in a room away from passengers, the process makes many travelers uncomfortable.
After Rapiscan failed to meet a congressionally mandated deadline to produce scanners that would not reveal a passenger’s identity, the TSA ended its contract with the company in January. The Gumby scanners then were transferred from smaller airports, such as Yampa Valley and Durango-La Plata Airport, to larger airports that lost their Rapiscans.
“Smaller airports were left high and dry,” Green said.
Instead of body-scanning, passengers at Durango got the old-fashioned pat-down and metal-detector wand scan. In March, Durango’s interim airport director Gary Suiter reported no delays following the loss of the Gumby scanner. At least 20 passengers missed their flights in February because of security-line congestion.
Durango-La Plata County Airport plans to add a second screening lane by June 14.
“There was a temporary slowdown,” said Durango-La Plata airport director Kip Turner in an interview Thursday. “But whatever gap we had is going to be filled by the second screening lane.”
Turner added that the screening lane addition was not related to the bill, but also will ameliorate delays.
David Ruppel, director of the Yampa Valley Airport, said he also suspected delays following the loss of their Gumby scanner in February.
“In the winter we have numbers comparable to the large airports,” Ruppel said.
Yampa also resorted to pat-downs but the local TSA supervisor also increased their personnel to compensate.
“From the speed aspect we didn’t see delays,” Ruppel said. However, the change did result in customer dissatisfaction.
“No one likes a pat-down,” Ruppel said.
Leigh Giangreco, a recent graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., is working as an intern for the Herald.
