The TSA finally agreed yesterday to scrap a controversial plan that would have allowed airline passengers to bring on board small knives and sports equipment that could potentially be used as weapons.
TSA Administrator John Pistole threw in the towel amid fierce, bipartisan opposition from lawmakers — along with unions, airline executives and much of the traveling public.
The measure, first proposed in March, would have permitted blades less than 2.35 inches, golf clubs, souvenir bats and hockey sticks.
“Today, our calls to keep knives off planes have been heard,” said Rep. Michael Grimm (R-SI).
Grimm and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) co-sponsored an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations Act to legislatively ban the Transportation Security Administration proposal.But airline executives remained dubious, and the initiative could find no traction, despite a month of meetings by Pistole with industry stakeholders, some of whom cited the 9/11 hijackers’ use of boxcutters as weapons.
Following the TSA announcement, a House voted last night “to ensure that there will not be another TSA reversal” on the policy.
Last month, 145 House members signed a letter asking that the ban be maintained, and four local senators — New York’s Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Robert Menendez and the late Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey — introduced a similar bill.
“It seemed obvious to most travelers and airline employees that the decision to allow knives on planes was wrong, and we’re glad the TSA, after further review and input, has seen it our way,” Schumer said.
The ban on knives aboard airplanes went into effect after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The agency’s attempt to rescind it became a lightning rod of controversy.
The TSA sought to justify the change as an attempt to match US rules with those elsewhere around the world and to better reflect intelligence on active terrorist threats.
Screeners confiscate more than 2,000 small folding knives a day from passengers, and those opposed to the TSA’s proposal — including the unions for pilots, flight attendants, air marshals and the TSA’s own screeners — said any change would have placed passengers and crews in peril.
Pistole delayed a planned April 25 implementation of the change after the detonation of two bombs at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded more than 200. Pistole’s tactic was designed to give him a window to rally support for his plan.