The Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) program that transitions responsibility from air carriers to the agency for checking airline passenger information against watch lists meets all the conditions set forth by Congress, clearing the way for Secure Flight to be deployed beyond the test phase, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a report.
TSA has continued to make progress over the years in meeting the 10 statutory conditions Congress enacted as part of the FY ’05 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, achieving its final condition–which is the completion of appropriate life-cycle cost estimates and program plans–recently, GAO says in its April 5 report, GAO Review of the Department of Homeland Security’s Certification of the Secure Flight Program–Cost and Schedule Estimates (GAO-10-535R).
“Although the program’s cost and schedule estimates do not fully meet all related best practices, TSA has demonstrated that it completed all key activities and our overall assessment found that the agency had substantially satisfied best practices for developing the cost and schedule estimates,” GAO says.
GAO says the life-cycle cost estimate for Secure Flight is $1.4 billion through 2020. CACI International [CAI] is currently providing program management support services for Secure Flight.
Last summer, as part of Secure Flight, TSA allowed airlines participating in the passenger vetting program to begin asking passengers to enter their date of birth and gender when making reservations. Previously, participating airlines used only a passenger’s name to submit for a watch list check, a process that led to some people, including members of Congress, frequently needing further vetting because their name matched that of someone else on one of the lists.
TSA expects this May to vet 100 percent of passengers on all domestic commercial flights. By the end of this year, the agency plans to vet all passengers on international commercial flights into, out of, or over the United States.
Currently, the agency is working with 74 U.S. air carriers and 19 foreign carriers, according to GAO. Secure Flight has taken on full watch list matching for 39 U.S. carriers and five foreign carriers, the report says.