	Background

		Our Nation’s Commercial Airports

There are more than 400 airports in the United States at which TSA  provides or oversees passenger and checked baggage screening. The result of this effort is the Staffing Allocation Model—an  optimization model that seeks, within certain TSA constraints, to  estimate the most efficient balance of TSOs needed to ensure security and  minimize wait times. These staffing levels, as determined by the model,  served as a limit on the number of private screeners that the private  screening contractors could employ. TSA Relies on the Assumptions in Its Staffing Allocation Model, along with Mechanisms for Monitoring Them, to Help Ensure Sufficient TSO Staffing Levels, but Some Key Assumptions Do Not Reflect Operating Conditions

TSA aims to ensure that its Staffing Allocation Model provides a sufficient  number of TSOs to perform passenger and checked baggage screening by:  (1) building assumptions into its allocation model that are designed to  calculate the necessary levels of TSOs to ensure security and minimize  wait times, and (2) employing multiple monitoring mechanisms for the  sufficiency of the model’s outputs. However, TSA does not have a  mechanism for selecting and prioritizing which assumptions to review  each year and for assuring that all assumptions are periodically reviewed. In addition, the model assumed a ratio of 20 percent part time to  80 percent full time (expressed in full-time equivalents), even in airports  that have consistently been unable to achieve a 20 percent part-time TSO  workforce; and the model had no mechanism to account for use of TSOs  to perform operation support functions. According to TSA officials  responsible for the Staffing Allocation Model, the model ensures that the  staffing allocations provide for the necessary levels of security because the  model is based on TSA’s standard operating procedures for screening  passengers and their carry-on items and checked baggage and on the  technology available at the passenger checkpoints and baggage screening  areas. After receiving the annual FTE allocation from TSA headquarters, the FSD  and his or her staff must prepare TSO work schedules, by using the  staffing model’s optional scheduling tool or some other method, to ensure  that adequate numbers of TSOs are conducting passenger and baggage  screening operations, at all times, to ensure adequate security and attempt  to meet the 10 minute wait time standard. However, factors outside the  model’s determination of overall staffing levels can affect FSDs’ ability to  effectively schedule TSOs at passenger lanes and baggage check areas. FSDs Are Responsible for Managing to Their TSO Staffing Allocation in Light of Local Circumstances

FSDs are responsible for deploying and managing to their TSO allocation  in light of local circumstances, including those that might affect  scheduling and pose challenges to most efficiently deploying their  resource allocations. TSA has provided FSDs with an optional tool they can use to facilitate the  management of their TSO allocation. TSO training requirements (based on available times identified by t scheduling tool). TSA Reported Several Efforts Underway to Help Address Challenges in Deploying the TSO Workforce

TSA headquarters officials and FSDs we interviewed reported having  several efforts underway to help address some of the challenges they face  in deploying the TSO workforce. TSA human  capital officials told us that they plan to establish performance metrics to  use in evaluating their workforce initiatives and use the results of the  evaluations to make any needed changes to their approach. Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

	Objectives

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, enacted in  December 2004, required the Transportation Security Administration  (TSA) to develop and submit to the Senate Committee on Commerce,  Science, and Transportation, and the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, standards for determining the  aviation security staffing for all airports at which TSA provides or overse screening services by March 2005. This  provision of the act also mandated that we conduct an analysis of TSA’s  staffing standards. To assess TSA’s efforts in developing a staffing  allocation model that ensures that it provides the necessary levels of  aviation security and that the average aviation security-related delay  experienced by passengers is minimized, we addressed the following  questions:    How does TSA ensure its Staffing Allocation Model provides a  sufficient number of Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to pe passenger and checked baggage screening at each airport and what  challenges has it faced while implementing the model? Objective One: Use of the Staffing Allocation Model to Provide a Sufficient Number of TSOs to Perform Passenger and Checked Baggage Screening at Each Airport and Challenges Faced While Implementing the Model

To determine how TSA ensures its Staffing Allocation Model provides a  sufficient number of Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to perform  passenger and checked baggage screening at each airport and what  challenges it has faced while implementing the model, we first sought to  obtain an understanding of how the Staffing Allocation Model works to  provide the appropriate number of TSO staff at the nation’s airports. Objective Two: TSA’s Deployment of Its TSO Allocation at Individual Airports and Factors That Impact the Allocation Model’s Effectiveness in Helping TSA Accomplish This Deployment

To determine how TSA deploys its allocation of TSOs at individual airports  and addresses other factors affecting the deployment, we interviewed TSA  staff at headquarters and at the airports we visited, regarding TSO  scheduling and workforce-related factors that can affect these efforts. Appendix II: Development and Description of TSA’s Staffing Allocation Model

	TSA’s Development of Its Staffing Allocation Model

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, enacted in November 2001,  significantly changed how passenger and checked baggage screening is  conducted in the United States. ATSA removed screening responsibility  from air carriers and the contractors who conducted screening for them,  and placed this responsibility with TSA. As a result, TSA hired and  deployed approximately 55,000 federal passenger and baggage  Transportation Security Officers (TSO) (formerly known as screeners) to  more than 400 airports nationwide.
Why GAO Did This Study

Over 600 million people travel by air each year in the United States, and the screening of airline passengers and their carry-on and checked baggage is vital to securing our transportation security system. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, enacted in November 2001, established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and significantly changed how passenger and checked baggage screening is conducted in the United States. This act removed screening responsibility from air carriers and the contractors who conducted screening for them, and placed this responsibility with TSA. As a result, TSA hired and deployed about 55,000 federal passenger and baggage Transportation Security Officers (TSO)--formerly known as screeners--to more than 400 airports nationwide based largely on the number of screeners that the air carrier contractors had employed. Since August 2002, however, TSA has been statutorily prohibited from exceeding 45,000 full-time equivalent positions available for screening. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, enacted in December 2004, required TSA to develop and submit to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, standards for determining the aviation security staffing for all airports at which TSA provides or oversees screening services by March 2005. These standards are to provide the necessary levels of aviation security and ensure that the average aviation security related delay experienced by passengers is minimized. TSA submitted these standards, which form the basis of TSA's Staffing Allocation Model on June 22, 2005. The purpose of this optimization model, as identified by TSA, is to estimate the most efficient balance of TSOs needed to ensure security and minimize wait times. Models, in general, are expected to approximate the real world. These approximations must be validated to assure model users that their predictions are credible within the bounds of specific situations, environments, and circumstances. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act also mandated that we conduct an analysis of TSA's staffing standards. In particular, the congressional committees to which TSA submitted the staffing standards were interested in how TSA is using the Staffing Allocation Model to identify the number of TSOs needed across the more than 400 commercial airports and how the model ensures that TSA has the right number of TSOs at the right checkpoints at the right times. This report addresses the following questions: (1) How does TSA ensure that its Staffing Allocation Model provides a sufficient number of TSOs to perform passenger and checked baggage screening at each airport and what challenges has it faced while implementing the model? (2) How does TSA deploy its TSO allocation and what factors affect the model's effectiveness in helping TSA accomplish this deployment?

What GAO Found

TSA aims to ensure that its Staffing Allocation Model provides a sufficient number of TSOs to perform passenger and checked baggage screening by: (1) building assumptions into its allocation model that are designed to calculate the necessary levels of TSOs to ensure security and minimize wait times, and (2) employing multiple monitoring mechanisms for the sufficiency of the model's outputs. However, TSA faces some challenges to effective implementation of the model, primarily in ensuring that the model's key assumptions reflect operating conditions across airports. The model determines the annual TSO allocation for each airport by first considering the workload demands unique to each airport based on an estimate of each airport's peak passenger volume. This input is then processed against certain TSA assumptions about screening passengers and checked baggage--including expected processing rates, required staffing for passenger lanes and baggage equipment based on standard operating procedures, and historical equipment alarm rates. To monitor the sufficiency of the model's allocation outputs, TSA has both field and headquarters-driven mechanisms in place. However, TSA does not have a mechanism, such as a documented plan, for selecting and prioritizing which assumptions to review each year and for assuring that all assumptions are periodically reviewed to help ensure that they are current with and reflect actual operating conditions. Without a plan for periodically validating all of the assumptions, TSA is at risk of assumptions becoming outdated, which could result in TSO allocations that do not reflect operating conditions. TSA has vested its FSDs with responsibility for deploying and managing to their TSO allocation in light of local circumstances, including those that might affect scheduling and pose challenges to most efficiently deploying their resource allocations. After receiving the annual staffing allocation from TSA headquarters, FSDs must prepare work schedules, which may include use of the Staffing Allocation Model's optional scheduling tool, to deploy TSO staff to meet screening demand. However, Federal Security Directors (FSD) we interviewed identified several challenges they faced in deploying their TSO workforce. These challenges involve factors outside the model's determination of overall TSO staffing levels and affect FSDs' ability to effectively deploy their TSO staff regardless of their allocation. Specifically, FSDs cited difficulties in achieving a 20 percent part-time TSO workforce, which the model has identified as the optimal ratio for scheduling efficiency; recruiting and retaining sufficient TSOs (both full-time and part-time) to reach their full allocations as determined by the model; staffing checkpoints appropriately given that some TSOs are unavailable due to absenteeism and injuries; and managing competing demands on TSOs' time, particularly with regard to operational support functions sometimes performed by TSOs and TSO training requirements. FSDs also had to manage around physical infrastructure limitations at some airports, such as lack of room for additional lanes or baggage check areas despite demand levels that would justify such added capacity. TSA headquarters officials and FSDs we interviewed reported having several efforts underway to help address challenges they face in deploying the TSO workforce. TSA officials at individual airports we visited are also working to address these challenges. TSA human capital officials told us that they plan to evaluate the effects of their workforce initiatives and use the results of the evaluations to make any needed changes to their approach.