News and Media

As Reported by Jessica Wehrman for Roll Call

Republicans and Democrats demonstrated a fundamental disagreement Tuesday on how best to address skyrocketing numbers of weapons being confiscated at airport security checkpoints, with Republicans arguing for more education and Democrats more inclined to embrace higher penalties for offenders.

While both parties agreed that the nearly 6,000 guns confiscated at airport security by Transportation Security Administration officers in 2021 was a problem, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security argued that most offenders were inadvertent offenders — people who had simply forgotten that they had a gun in their bag.

As Reported by Jennifer Shutt for News from the States

U.S. House members wrestled Tuesday with how to address a spike in travelers trying to bring firearms through airport screening points in carry-on bags.

During 2021, Transportation Security Administration officers detected 5,972 firearms at checkpoints, 86% of which were loaded. That number was up from the previous record of 4,432 discovered in 2019.

The Homeland Security Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee received several suggestions during its hearing about how to deal with this increase, though Democrats and Republicans differed on how best to reduce the number of passengers bringing guns to airports as well as their motivations.

As Reported by CBS Miami 

Representatives from Miami International Airport and Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson Airport testified before lawmakers in the House as part of a national effort to tackle the surge in weapons discovered at TSA checkpoints nationwide.

Last year, the U.S. broke a record for guns found in carry-on luggage. An alarmingly high number of those weapons were loaded.

As Reported by Lillianna Byington for Bloomberg Government

Higher fines, more signs, and a no-fly list could help deter passengers from bringing a rising number of guns to airport security checkpoints, airport executives, police, and lawmakers said.

Such incidents reached record levels over the last year and more needs to be done to stop them, witnesses told a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on Tuesday. Transportation Security Administration officers found 5,972 firearms at airport security checkpoints nationwide in 2021, about an 83% spike from the year before.

As Reported by Karl Evers-Hillstrom for The Hill

Labor unions representing airport service agents on Thursday urged the Biden administration to protect their members from abusive and violent travelers.

In a letter to Biden administration officials, the unions said that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s effort to crack down on assaults against flight crews does not extend protections to airport agents working at gate, ticket and reservation areas and other ground-based locations.

The groups said that airport police departments and local law enforcement have not received clear guidance from the federal government on how to respond to attacks on airport workers, allowing passengers to assault their members without recourse in some cases.

Washington, D.C. — Today, labor unions representing tens of thousands of airport passenger service agents are urging President Biden and other administration officials to address the increase in assaults at airports through more effective federal enforcement of existing laws against assaulting airport customer service representatives and gate agents. The unions – Communications Workers of America (CWA), […]

As Reported by Jason McDaniel for Bulk Transporter

Members of the House Homeland Security Committee recently introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to streamline the application and renewal process for transportation workers who need multiple credentials, and establish a reduced fee structure.

If signed into law, the bill would bring relief for carriers, and the overall supply chain, says Ryan Streblow, president and CEO of National Tank Truck Carriers, which has had a long-standing goal of streamlining the process for securing the Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME) and Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).

Other organizations that support the bill include the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO; Teamsters; Washington Trucking Associations; American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association; Association of American Railroads; Border Trade Alliance, and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

As Reported by Matthew Jinoo Buck for The American Prospect

Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, a labor organization, explains that when the supply chain crisis hit, “the drastic cuts to the rail labor force during PSR have ensured that there is no flexibility in the workforce.” Railroads used to maintain “extra boards,” or backup train crews on call just in case. In recent years, railroads viewed those as costs to be cut, which, Regan says, “backfired when those employees were needed.” Training and certification requirements then prevented employees from being hired back quickly.

WASHINGTON – Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, President and Secretary-Treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued this statement in response to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s announcement of grant awards from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program: “We applaud the Biden Administration for squarely prioritizing good union […]

As Reported by David Shepardson for Reuters

A U.S. House panel will hold a hearing next week on self-driving vehicles, even as a push in Congress to speed deployment of autonomous vehicles has stalled.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s subcommittee on highways and transit said Thursday it will hold a Feb. 2 hearing titled “The Road Ahead for Automated Vehicles” that will include experts, labor leaders and industry representatives.

In May, Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, told U.S. lawmakers at a separate hearing that autonomous vehicles place millions of jobs at risk and self-driving legislation should not apply to commercial trucks.