Failed airline bombing draws attention to TSA leadership void

Failed airline bombing draws attention to TSA leadership void    The attempted terrorist attack onboard a Northwest Airlines flight on approach to Detroit from Amsterdam has raised the spotlight on the fact that the Transportation Security Administration, which is in charge of aviation security, has not had a leader for almost a year since President Obama took office.
   The Senate Homeland Security and Commerce committees in late October voted to approve Obama's nominee for TSA administrator, Erroll G. Southers, but a confirmation vote has been delayed by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who put a hold on his nomination.
   DeMint has expressed concern that Southers will unionize TSA screeners at airports. Unions representing federal employees are arguing that TSA employees should have collective bargaining rights and DeMint says Southers has not responded clearly to questions about whether he intends to reverse current policy and allow screeners to join a union.

Reid

   Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on his Web site Tuesday blamed Republicans for blocking Southers from taking over TSA and said he would file cloture on Souther's nomination to try and break the hold when the Senate reconvenes in January.
      Cloture is a parliamentary procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a matter and thereby overcome a filibuster. It essentially is a vote to end debate and vote on the matter at hand.

Rockefeller

   'I . . . urge my colleagues to refrain from partisanship in approaching our nation's security. This is no time for political games with nominations, for example, and we must act to confirm a leader for the Transportation Security Administration as quickly as possible,' Sen. John D. Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in a statement.
   In an interview on Fox News, DeMint denied preventing Southers' approval, saying that his hold only invites open debate and a recorded vote on his nomination. He added that Reid could have scheduled a vote at any time and that the agency was not a top administration priority given that it took eight months for Southers to be nominated.
   “The attempted terror attack in Detroit is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA and allow our airline security decisions to be dictated by union bosses,” DeMint said in a written statement sent to FoxNews.com.
   He said TSA has the “flexibility” to respond to threats with immediate security changes, as it did in response to Friday’s incident, but that Southers “appears ready to give union bosses the power to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports.”
   The White House expressed confidence Wednesday in Acting TSA Administrator Gail Rossides.
   Southers is assistant chief of homeland security and intelligence for Los Angeles World Airports and a former FBI agent. In addition to passenger and airport security, he would be responsible for air cargo security and overseeing security for other transportation modes.

Chertoff

   Meanwhile, the nomination of Alan Bersin to head Customs and Border Protection, another major Department of Homeland Security agency, has also languished in the Senate. Obama nominated Bersin in late September to be CBP commissioner. Bersin currently is working at DHS as its Southwest border czar, a position that doesn't require Senate confirmation. His nomination has to go through the Senate Finance Committee, which has been preoccupied with health care reform legislation.
   Michael Chertoff, who headed DHS during the Bush administration, said if the country is going to work on enhancing security, there needs to be permanent people in place at TSA and Customs and Border Protection. “A year is too long a time,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press. ' Eric Kulisch