U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

On September 16, 2009, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued new air cargo screening rules.   The rules are generally well thought out, except for one glaring problem.

Some background first.  After the tragic, terrorist events of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress convened a Commission to investigate how it happened and how it could be prevented from happening again. A primary result was the “Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (“9/11 Act”).  The amended law at 49 U.S.C. section 44901(g)(1) required all airlines to screen 50% of the cargo on passenger aircraft by February 3, 2009.  The law also required 100% of the air cargo to be screened by August 3, 2010.  The challenge was that with 12 million pounds of cargo that is now transported on passenger aircraft daily, the TSA concluded that airlines by themselves could not achieve the 100% screening requirement.

Hence, the September 16, 2009 Air Cargo Screening Interim Final Rule, effective November 16, 2009, created the certified cargo screening program (CCSP) so that companies other than airlines could be approved by TSA to screen cargo before it was delivered to an airline at the airport to be put in the belly of a passenger plane.  The companies that would screen the cargo would be known as certified cargo screening facilities (CCSF).

The term “screening” is defined as a “physical examination or non-intrusive method of assessing whether cargo poses a threat to transportation security.  Methods include x-ray systems, explosive detection, explosives detection canine teams, […]