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through buses, subways, ferries, and light-rail service to about 14 million Amer-
icans each weekday.
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In November 2001, Congress passed and the President signed the Aviation
and Transportation Security Act. This act created the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA), which is now part of the Homeland Security Depart-
ment. In November 2002, both the Homeland Security Act and the Maritime
Transportation Security Act followed.These laws required the development of
strategic plans to describe how the new department and TSA would provide
security for critical parts of the U.S. transportation sector.
Over 90 percent of the nation's $5.3 billion annual investment in the TSA
goes to aviation--to fight the last war. The money has been spent mainly to
meet congressional mandates to federalize the security checkpoint screeners
and to deploy existing security methods and technologies at airports.The cur-
rent efforts do not yet reflect a forward-looking strategic plan systematically
analyzing assets, risks, costs, and benefits. Lacking such a plan, we are not con-
vinced that our transportation security resources are being allocated to the
greatest risks in a cost-effective way.
· Major vulnerabilities still exist in cargo and general aviation security.
These, together with inadequate screening and access controls, con-
tinue to present aviation security challenges.
· While commercial aviation remains a possible target, terrorists may
turn their attention to other modes. Opportunities to do harm are as
great, or greater, in maritime or surface transportation. Initiatives to
secure shipping containers have just begun. Surface transportation sys-
tems such as railroads and mass transit remain hard to protect because
they are so accessible and extensive.
Despite congressional deadlines, the TSA has developed neither an integrated
strategic plan for the transportation sector nor specific plans for the various
modes--air, sea, and ground.
Recommendation: Hard choices must be made in allocating limited
resources. The U.S. government should identify and evaluate the
transportation assets that need to be protected, set risk-based prior-
ities for defending them, select the most practical and cost-effective
ways of doing so, and then develop a plan, budget, and funding to
implement the effort. The plan should assign roles and missions to
the relevant authorities (federal, state, regional, and local) and to pri-
vate stakeholders. In measuring effectiveness, perfection is unattain-
able. But terrorists should perceive that potential targets are
defended. They may be deterred by a significant chance of failure.
WHAT TO DO? A GLOBAL STRATEGY
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