WASHINGTON — A new report says thousands of airport screeners didn't get
required background checks.
The Homeland Security inspector general says because of a rush to hire
workers, the Transportation Security Administration had employed 18,000
screeners who hadn't cleared background checks by May of last year.
Some 85 of those workers were convicted felons and were later fired.
In one case, workers found 500 boxes of unprocessed background forms for
more than 20,000 screeners.
In response, TSA acting Administrator David Stone says the agency has
acknowledged mistakes and is working to correct them.
The agency has fired about 1,200 screeners after discovering lies on
applications or criminal records. But the inspector general says TSA
wrongly fired 169 screeners with clean records.
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