Today, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) notified U.S. Senator Susan Collins that the agency has agreed to her request that it reimburse the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport $30,000 for security personnel expenses that were incurred due to federal security requirements.
“Officials at the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport complied, in good faith, with federal law that requires all airports to have security guards at screening checkpoints,” said Senator Collins. “By reconsidering its original decision, the TSA recognizes that withholding these funds would have had a seriously detrimental effect on the airport’s budget.”
In a letter sent earlier this month to TSA Administrator Kip Hawley, Senator Collins outlined the importance of the Hancock County-Bar Harbor airport to the Downeast region of Maine and urged him to give the airport’s appeal of TSA’s decision to withhold the funds full and fair consideration.
A copy of Senator Collins’ letter to TSA is as follows:
February 15, 2008
The Honorable Edmund S. Hawley
Administrator
Transportation Security Administration
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
601 South 12th Street
Arlington, VA 22202-4220
Dear Kip:
I am writing to support the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport’s (BHB) appeal of an initial denial of reimbursement under the Law Enforcement Officer Reimbursement Agreement Program (LEORAP).
Conveniently located halfway between the City of Ellsworth and the Town of Bar Harbor, BHB is an important regional airport linking many people, jobs, and visitors to Maine. Particularly because of its importance to the region, I was troubled to learn of an unexpected economic hardship at BHB resulting from TSA’s decision to withhold reimbursement of over $30,000 for security personnel expenses that were incurred due to federal security requirements. To a smaller regional airport, like BHB, incurring even this level of unexpected costs would have a seriously detrimental effect on the airport’s budget. As you are aware, the original five-year agreement for BHB under LEORAP ended
this past September, and BHB entered into a new five-year cooperative agreement with TSA on October 2,2007. However, on December 20, 2007, TSA notified BHB that the airport was no longer eligible for reimbursement, resulting in the denial of reimbursement until BHB corrected their non-compliance issue.
TSA indicated that the non-compliance resulted from its determination that BHB was using “non-certified armed security personnel,” and that BHB would not be compliant until its security guards had “general law enforcement powers.” This determination came months after the agreement had been approved by TSA. The TSA guidance on this point, however, is vague: it says that TSA allows airports to hire either Law Enforcement Officers or “state certified armed security guards.” Maine does not certify security guard companies, but does issue licenses for such firms. The security firm that BHB hired for security personnel services was licensed by the State of Maine and, therefore, BHB determined that this state licensed security firm and their guards should be considered state certified. If contracting with a Maine licensed security company was not sufficient to meet the requirements of LEORAP, then TSA should have raised this issue earlier – and certainly not renewed BHB’s cooperative agreement. Consequently, BHB rightly believed that it was fulfilling its obligations under the program.
Once notified of TSA’s concerns, BHB immediately acted to ensure that the security guards at BHB had full law enforcement powers. As of January 14, 2008, those security guards are now sworn Deputy Sheriffs for the County of Hancock, Maine. I understand that BHB, through the airport manager, Robert Cossette, has appealed the denial of reimbursement. BHB has taken all the necessary steps to come into line with TSA’s interpretation of its program guidance, and I do not believe that BHB should be penalized through the withholding of reimbursement for TSA’s failure to clearly articulate and provide adequate notice of its interpretation.
Please give BHB’s appeal full and fair consideration. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.