15 Minutes of Training: the TSA violates federal law?

The Transportation Security Administration’s “elite” baggage screening team — which travels from airport to airport as the TSA takes over security — started work after only 15 minutes of training. They weren’t tested or certified on the equipment. This despite a requirement in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act which requires all “security screeners” have a minimum 40 hours classroom and 60 hours on-the-job training… which would be more than enough to learn to operate the machines, but probably not enough to learn to detect explosives.

Mineta’s TSA is clearly not ready for primetime. They aim to deploy more than 50,000 federal passenger and baggage screeners and install thousands of luggage-screening machines at U.S. airports before year-end — screeners who are apparently less qualified than the private workers they are replacing.