The Division of Homeland Safety has been exploring methods to lighten the Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) guidelines governing airport journey, Secretary Kristi Noem advised NewsNation host Blake Burman on the Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday.
Noem teased a possible easing of rules on the sizes of liquids allowed by airport safety and mentioned the “future of an airport,” in her view, would enable vacationers to primarily stroll by safety.
Noem’s remarks come shortly after an announcement by TSA that it might enable vacationers to maintain their sneakers on throughout safety screening.
She claimed that since day one, she began “questioning everything TSA does.”
It’s not clear when new adjustments, if any, could be introduced, or what their implementation would seem like.
“It’s not certainly anything we’ll be announcing in the next week or two, but we’re working to see what we can do to make the traveling experience much better and more hospitable for individuals, but also still keep safety standards,” Noem advised The Hill after her look on the summit.
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Right here’s what to know in regards to the adjustments to airport safety DHS could be weighing.
Contemplating permitting extra liquid
Liquids in carry-on gadgets are restricted to small containers of three.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or much less, typically packed collectively in a one-quart plastic bag. Vacationers could pack extra liquids of their checked baggage.
“I will tell you — I mean the liquids — I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be,” Noem mentioned on the Hill Nation Summit.
TSA’s liquid rules have been instituted in response to a 2006 plot thwarted by British authorities to allegedly blow up a U.S.-bound airplane with liquid explosives. The company initially banned liquids and gels in carry-on baggage altogether earlier than revisiting to undertake the present dimension restrictions.
The liquid rules additionally apply to aerosols, gels, lotions and pastes starting from shampoo to hair spray to peanut butter.
No extra sneakers off on the airport
An enormous change was introduced on July 8 when TSA mentioned it might enable vacationers to maintain their sneakers on throughout safety screening.
This might lower the wait occasions in safety strains and keep away from the well-known pile-up after the TSA checkpoint, the place everyone seems to be scrambling to tie their laces. Nevertheless, vacationers will nonetheless be requested to take away different gadgets akin to electronics or belts.
The practically 20-year-old regulation was launched as a result of Richard Reid tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his shoe in Miami in December 2001, simply after 9/11.
A TSA pilot program, nevertheless, demonstrated that new screening expertise might detect threats even when people stored their sneakers on.
“Thanks to our cutting-edge technological advancements and multi-layered security approach, we are confident we can implement this change while maintaining the highest security standards. This initiative is just one of many the Trump administration is pursuing to usher in the President’s vision for a new Golden Age of American travel,” DHS wrote in a press launch.
What’s subsequent for TSA guidelines?
Noem additionally touted the opportunity of new expertise that may simplify the general course of.
The DHS chief mentioned she is “working with several different companies with technologies to give us competitive bids on what they actually do.”
The brand new providers could be piloted in choose U.S. airports and, if profitable, deployed nationwide, she mentioned.
“It is still a process that is protecting people who are traveling on our airlines. But it has to make sense. It has to actually do something to make you safer,” Noem advised Burman.
She continued by criticizing the Biden administration for not seeing the adjustments as a precedence.
“I kept wondering if we were doing things just to slow people down, or what it was, but TSA is working on the technology that we have available to us if we deploy it correctly,” Noem mentioned.
And she or he sketched an bold view of what airport safety might seem like.
“The future of an airport, where I’m looking to go, is you walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and right to your flight. Takes you one minute,” mentioned Noem.
