Last week’s deadly airport shooting in Florida is reviving a heated debate over aviation security in the U.S.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are eying an upcoming aviation bill to potentially beef up airport security, with legal authority for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expiring in September.
“We’ll take a look at the particulars of that very tragic incident and see if there are any steps we can take to make these areas more secure,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told reporters Tuesday. “We did some of that last year, in terms of the perimeter getting into the airport, but the baggage claim is of course another subject.”
{mosads}A short-term reauthorization of the FAA, which Congress passed last summer, included a handful of security measures that were taken from a Senate version of the bill. Now, some House members are hoping to weigh in on the issue as well.
“The Fort Lauderdale shooting does indicate we’re going to have to tackle this in the House version” of the FAA bill, said Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Was.), ranking member on the Transportation subcommittee on aviation. “It will give us an impetus in the House to try to include more discussion about security than we had last year.”
Still, the fatal attack by a lone gunman is also highlighting the lack of easy answers for improving airport security. While some have called for expanding the security perimeter, others say it’s impossible to protect every part of the airport because crowds of people will just be shifted to other non-secure areas.
“At some point, it is just completely and totally impractical,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee.
Last Friday, a gunman opened fire in the baggage claim area of a terminal at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, leaving five people dead and multiple others wounded.
The FBI says that the suspect, 26-year-old Army veteran Esteban Santiago, retrieved a handgun from his checked luggage, loaded the gun in a nearby bathroom and began shooting at passengers in the terminal.
In addition to the handgun, the suspect also had two magazines in his checked baggage, which is allowed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA.)
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, said they will examine whether there are any “vulnerability lapses that can be closed.”
One issue he thinks should be immediately explored is whether to permit live ammunition in checked luggage.
“The quickest fix right now, from my standpoint, is to see whether or not we can ban ammunition on planes,” Thompson said. “I’m looking on the preventative side.”
But Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), top Democrat on the Transportation committee, warned that “you’re not going to change that.”
“There’s a legitimate reason for people to pack away [weapons],” he said. “Hunters, for example.”
Instead, Nelson said Congress may further increase the presence of special teams with bomb-sniffing dogs around airport perimeters.
Last year’s FAA bill expanded the number of so-called VIPR teams following a wave of deadly terrorist attacks across Europe, including a series of bombings near the ticket counters at the Brussels airport.
“We may be looking at that, of increasing the number of dogs, because that’s been the most successful thing for finding explosives,” Nelson said.
“Now, a dog’s not going to sniff a weapon,” he added.
Lawmakers have responded with legislation to active airport shooters before.
After a deadly shooting at a terminal in the Los Angeles International Airport in 2013, the House passed a bill requiring the TSA to verify that airports have emergency response plans in place and to ensure that TSA employees are trained in responding to shooting threats.
“This horrific shooting is just another reminder that more needs to be done to secure our nation’s airports,” J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in a press release. “AFGE has long-called for extensive training for TSA Officers and the creation of a new unit of trained and armed law enforcement officers within TSA at airports nationwide. Lawmakers and airport officials must implement increased security measures to ensure the safety of passengers and all airport personnel.”
Some have also called for only allowing travelers to access baggage claim areas, though Larsen points out that would not have prevented the Fort Lauderdale incident, as the shooter was a passenger himself.
“When it comes to crowds in airports, whether it be at the ticket counter, or outside of security, or at baggage claim, you’re just not going to avoid crowds at airports,” Nelson said. “And that is a problem.”