(US GOVERNMENT) Agency in the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Mostly a new entity, which is perhaps the single most conspicuous domestic policy failure of the US government since 2000.
The
TSA's job is to inspect baggage carried on flights at 450 international airports in the USA. Implementing this mandate simply consisted of "federalizing" thousands of private-sector employees who had been woefully under-qualified. Initially, the DHS had been formed explicitly to break law enforcement unions (which contribute to fighting corruption in law enforcement, as well as protecting law enforcement officers' rights as employees). In the case of the TSA, this had disastrous consequences for the quality of
air travel.
The Transportation Security Administration has one mission, namely, to check passengers and luggage at 450 international airports across the USA. It does not
inspect freight or border entries; that is done by
Customs and Border Protection. For this function, it employs 45,000 screeners under lousy conditions with awful pay. And it spends more doing this one thing than Sweden spends on its entire military.
