MAGAW TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION SECURITY POST

MAGAW TESTIFIES BEFORE SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION SECURITY POST    John W. Magaw, President Bush’s choice to lead the new Transportation Security Agency promised senators that he would use his leadership experience as Secret Service director to oversee transportation and shipping security in America.
   Magaw, testifying before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, is slated to become the Under Secretary for the newly-formed TSA, a branch borne of new security measures installed by the President and Congress after Sept. 11.
   “Transportation security is an enormously important issue. It effects every element of our society,” Magaw said. “The work of the Transportation Security Administration is to restore the confidence of the traveling public and commercial shippers while protecting the system from daily threats.”
   Magaw added that he would lead and encourage a cohesive integration of national officials that oversee all transportation modes.
   Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.V., challenged Magaw to meet the new, sophisticated needs to ensure transportation security, specifically needling Magaw on three issues at hand: the implementation of explosive detection systems to screen baggage, the screening and employment of 30,000 new federal baggage screeners, and the implementation of biometrics in the security chain.
   Magaw assured Rockefeller and the committee that he could meet the challenge, if he were granted the five-year term of TSA Undersecretary. He said he would deploy a dependable workforce to oversee transportation security.
   “This workforce will operate in a flat, flexible, agile, and responsive organization, and will use the best technology to move critical information around the system in real time,” he said.
   Magaw, who has held positions in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, emphasized that his career prepared him for the position at the new agency, which this week received $1.2 billion in appropriations with President Bush’s signature.
   “In many ways, although unknowingly, I have spent my entire career preparing for the job,” he said.