Opinion ID: 617052
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA)

Text: Congress enacted the ATSA immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Congress sought to improve aviation security by effecting fundamental change in the way [the United States] approaches the task of ensuring the safety and security of the civil air transportation system. H.R.Rep. No. 107-296, at 1, 49 (2001), 2002 U.S.C.C.A.N. 589, 0, 590 (Conf.Rep.). To that end, Congress created a new agency, the TSA, with sweeping responsibility for airport security screening, including setting the qualifications, conditions, and standards of employment for airport security screeners. 49 U.S.C. § 114. Congress vested the TSA Administrator [2] with the authority to carry out the provisions of the ATSA. Id. § 114(d)-(f). [3] Congress placed particular emphasis on the Administrator's singular responsib[ility] for day-to-day Federal security screening operations for passenger air transportation and intrastate air transportation, directing that [t]he Under Secretary shall. . . develop standards for the hiring and retention of security screening personnel. Id. § 114(e). Congress recognize[d] that, in order to ensure that Federal screeners are able to provide the best security possible, the Secretary must be given wide latitude to determine the terms of employment of screeners. H.R.Rep. No. 107-296, at 57, 2002 U.S.C.C.A.N. 589, 57. This led Congress to enact a very specific provision, ATSA § 111(d), which provides: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Under Secretary of Transportation for Security may employ, appoint, discipline, terminate, and fix the compensation, terms, and conditions of employment of Federal service for such a number of individuals as the Under Secretary determines to be necessary to carry out the screening functions [required by the Act]. ATSA § 111(d), 115 Stat. at 620 (emphasis added) (49 U.S.C. § 44935 (historical and revision notes)). Congress regarded screeners as so fundamental to aviation security that it outlined detailed minimum qualifications for the job in a provision containing a second notwithstanding clause. Section 44935(e)(2)(A), entitled Qualifications [for Security Screeners], states: the Under Secretary shall establish qualification standards for individuals to be hired by the United States as security screening personnel. Notwithstanding any provision of law, those standards shall require, at a minimum, an individual to meet several specific qualifications. 49 U.S.C. § 44935(e)(2)(A) (emphasis added). For example, security screeners must receive a satisfactory or better score on a Federal security screening personnel selection examination and must demonstrate daily a fitness for duty without any impairment due to illegal drugs, sleep deprivation, medication, or alcohol. Id. § 44935(e)(2)(A)(i), (e)(2)(A)(v). Most pertinently, the enumerated qualifications include detailed physical requirements. Section 44935(e)(2)(A)(iii) provides that security screeners must meet, at a minimum, the requirements set forth in [§ 44935](f). Section 44935(f), in turn, contains a third notwithstanding clause which sets forth the following physical requirements: Notwithstanding any provision of law, an individual may not be deployed as a security screener unless that individual. . . shall possess basic aptitudes and physical abilities, including color perception, visual and aural acuity, physical coordination, and motor skills, to the following standards: . . . . Screeners performing physical searches or other related operations shall be able to efficiently and thoroughly manipulate and handle such baggage, containers, and other objects subject to security processing. . . . . Screeners who perform pat-downs or hand-held metal detector searches of individuals shall have sufficient dexterity and capability to thoroughly conduct those procedures over an individual's entire body. Id. § 44935(f)(1) (emphasis added). This section lists several additional physical requirements, including the ability to distinguish between colors, hear alarm sounds, and respond in spoken voice. Id. [4] Section 44935(e)(2)(A), the Qualifications section, also requires that at a minimum [a security screener must] meet such other qualifications as the Under Secretary may establish. Id. § 44935(e)(2)(A). Using this authority, TSA has established that all security screeners must be able to handle, lift, and carry baggage weighing up to seventy pounds. Yeager v. Chertoff, No. CV06-00740, 2006 WL 4673439, at -2 (W.D.Wash. Nov. 13, 2006); see also TSA Transportation Security Officer Conditions of Employment, http://www.tsa.gov/ join/benefits/soar/tsa/tso_trainee.shtm (last visited Nov. 8, 2011). TSA has explained that a security screener who is medically restricted from lifting or carrying baggage weighing up to 70 pounds is not qualified to perform the essential function of performing security screening of property and baggage at our nation's airports. It would be unsafe to the person, to the traveling public, and to other employees to put a person with such a medical restriction in this position. Declaration of Elizabeth B. Kolmstetter, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Human Capital, Transportation Security Administration, Yeager, 2006 WL 4673439. [5] The ATSA also mandates an annual evaluation of each security screener to ensure continued qualification for the job. 49 U.S.C. § 44935(f)(5). The statute states that [a]n individual employed as a security screener may not continue to be employed in that capacity unless the evaluation demonstrates that the individual . . . continues to meet all qualifications and standards required to perform a screening function, . . . [and] demonstrates the . . . skills necessary to . . . effectively perform [such] screening functions. Id. § 44935(f)(5). Finally, the statute provides that the Under Secretary shall also review, and revise as necessary, any standard, rule, or regulation governing the employment of individuals as security screening personnel. Id. § 44935(e)(3).