Cargo screening deadline not feasible, Hawley says.

A PROPOSED THREE YEAR deadline to physically inspect every piece of cargo loaded aboard airliners is impossible, the head of the Transportation Security Administration told senators.

"Any mandate to physically inspect 100 percent of air cargo within three years is not feasible without impeding the legitimate flow of commerce and imposing an unreasonable cost on the government," DHS Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Legislation requiring that all cargo be screened is expected to wind its way through Congress this year. Lawmakers have asked why cargo loaded aboard airliners doesn't undergo the same scrutiny as checked bags and passengers.

Transportation security is high on the now Democratic-controlled committee's priority list. Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, called Hawley to Capitol Hill for its first hearing of the new session. A surface transportation security hearing followed the next day.

"The TSA must work with Congress to make certain extensive [air cargo] screening becomes a reality in the near term," Inouye said.

TSA is working out final rules for determining what will be screened, Hawley said. One hundred percent of high-risk cargo is being screened, he asserted. The goal will be to "enhance security without unduly disrupting the flow of commerce."

On the passenger screening side, TSA in 2006 spent $534 million to buy and develop explosives detection technology. The agency is also reinforcing its improvised explosive device training it first began in fall 2005. More than 38,000 transportation security officers have completed this training, Hawley said.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., had several beefs with Hawley. Among them was the requirement to remove shoes before screening.

TSA enlisted two contractors to test backscatter x-ray technology that could eliminate the need to separately screen shoes, but Hawley cautioned the committee that the system's cost could be a major deterrent.