AIRPORT SCREENING FEDS' JOB, HAHN SAYS.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Saying that the public ``needs to see a federal badge of authority'' to restore its faith in the safety of air travel, Mayor James Hahn on Thursday urged Congress to federalize all airport screening personnel.

``We have to have better-paid federal personnel who meet minimum standards, have passed background checks and are fully trained,'' Hahn said.

He noted that the present screening system, which uses employees from private companies under contract to airlines, ``is entrusting security to the lowest bidder.''

Hahn also said that federalization, which would make screeners law-enforcement employees of the U.S. Department of Transportation, is also crucial to the fiscal health of Los Angeles International and other city- owned airports.

James Seeley, Los Angeles' chief Washington lobbyist, said Wednesday that the latest city estimates showed LAX losing more than $2 million a day. That includes a $2 million daily shortfall in revenue from parking, concessions and other fees, and $1.5 million a month in added expenses for security measures.

LAX officials recently reported that passenger traffic fell 33 percent in September from 2000 levels and was off 3.4 percent for the year compared to 2000. LAX, which handled 68.5 million passengers in 2000, is ranked third-busiest in the world - after Atlanta and Chicago - by the Airports International Council.

Hahn made his pitch at an emergency security summit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which unanimously endorsed the plan, and later joined with Democratic House members for meetings and a press conference on Capitol Hill.

But Hahn's pleas fell on deaf ears among House Republicans, including Reps. David Dreier, R-Covina, and Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who met with the mayor at a Capitol luncheon.

``It was a good and productive meeting,'' said Dreier, who reiterated Republican opposition to adding federal employees and a new bureaucracy.

The GOP's airport safety plan would raise federal hiring and training standards for screeners, but would continue to rely on private contractors to enforce the upgrades. Contractors, in turn, would face tighter regulation by the Department of Transportation.

The Democrat-controlled Senate on Oct. 11 unanimously approved an airport safety bill that would federalize screening personnel.

``We need to get this airline safety bill to the floor and vote,'' said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, who said the Republican proposal ``just seems to put sugar-coating on what we have been doing.''

Hahn and his fellow mayors also urged President George W. Bush and Congress to give Tom Ridge, director of homeland defense, cabinet status, budgetary authority and the power to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts by more than 40 federal agencies.

Ridge, in a Thursday morning speech to the mayors' group, rejected the idea, saying: ``I know I have the access (to Bush) and the authority. Right now, I don't think I need statutory authority to do what I need to do.''

``We absolutely have to have a cabinet-level Office of Homeland Defense,'' Hahn said after Ridge's speech. ``It's wonderful that the governor and Bush are old friends and that he has the president's ear, but we need something more concrete.''

Hahn said that an Oct. 12 terrorism alert called by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was a prime example of the lack of coordination between federal and local officials.

``We got caught flat-footed,'' Hahn said. ``We only learned about the alert from the media. Even the FBI's special agent in charge in Los Angeles had no knowledge of the threat.''

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Tom Ridge, left, director of homeland security, joins Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn on Thursday in Washington.

Rick Bowmer/Associated Press