Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 155 posts

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#51

Post by Someone1234 »

otterley wrote: post #29

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

The question itself feels like it calls for "Schoolhouse Rock" level basics about how the federal government works.

The federal government does not work like a private escrow account where a fee collected for X automatically goes to Y. Tax revenue comes in to the Treasury, and Congress decides what agencies are allowed to spend. So even if TSA screening is funded in part by a per-ticket user fee, TSA still does not get to just collect that money and use it directly. Congress has to authorize and appropriate it.

On a practical level, imagine the chaos if every federal department acted as its own tax collector and then set its own spending priorities. That is basically an argument for gutting Congress's oversight of TSA and treating it like an independent agency, just because Congress and the executive branch invented the modern shutdown in the 1980s.

Keep in mind shutdowns are a fairly new concept, that nearly no other country has. The US also didn't have it for most of its history. Congress could stop at any time it wanted.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#52

Post by mikkupikku »

otterley wrote: post #29

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

AFAIC there's no good reason for airport security to be a federal jobs program in the first place. The airports and/or their contractors are perfectly capable of operating x-ray machines and metal detectors on their own, and from what I understand are even still permitted to but all choose to let the government do it and pay for it.

What the fuck is the TSA even supposed to be doing? The 9/11 guys supposedly used box cutters. Does anybody seriously think you can't get a little blade like that onto an airplane in your carry on luggage? I bring double sided razor blades with every time I fly and they have never flagged it. And more importantly, does anybody actually believe you could still hijack a plane with a pocket knife? All the other passengers now know the score, they all die unless they throw themselves on you which they will and have done many times since. What's more, you won't get into the locked cockpit anyway. Airport security is solved. Basic bitch scanning for guns is all you need and we had that solved in the 90s which is the reason the hijackers used pocket knives, which no longer works. Disband the TSA.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#53

Post by icegreentea2 »

otterley wrote: post #29

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

If you scroll down on the page, it'll show that the user fees only offset ~20% of the overall security expenses.

In addition, most fees (including most of the TSA fee) collected by the US Federal government isn't earmarked - it just goes into the general fund.

More breakdown here: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/23/us/tsa-funding-security-fees-...

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#54

Post by hammock »

frankbreetz wrote: post #46
hammock wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should private plane passengers be subject to TSA? TSA (paid for by you and me by the way, not for free) exists to protect the public from harm, on public flights by common carriers. It used to be contracted by airlines themselves. Unless you are the most extreme of pro-seatbelt law people, it would make little sense for TSA to screen anyone on a private plane manifest unless the client asked them to.

The TSA was created because a plane crashed into a building. Private planes can crash into buildings. Why should they be exempt from TSA checks?

Lots of things can crash into buildings. Should they all be screened by TSA? Drones and their operators prior to every launch? 30 minute helicopter tours and high-rise HVAC drop offs? Private satellites?

Or is licensing and registration (of pilots and aircraft and manifest and flight plan) enough?

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#55

Post by AlotOfReading »

hammock wrote: post #41
PearlRiver wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people arriving on private jets have always bypassed these bureaucratic procedures. Brotherhood and equality.

Why should private plane passengers be subject to TSA? TSA (paid for by you and me by the way, not for free) exists to protect the public from harm, on public flights by common carriers. It used to be contracted by airlines themselves. Unless you are the most extreme of pro-seatbelt law people, it would make little sense for TSA to screen anyone on a private plane manifest unless the client asked them to.

No, the TSA exists because 19 people hijacked 4 flights and succeeded in crashing 3 of them into various important buildings in the US on 9/11/2001.

Private planes are just as capable of crashing into buildings as commercial jets. The TSA has picked up some ancillary public safety functions over the years, but their raison d'etre is to prevent hijackings.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#56

Post by idiotsecant »

hammock wrote: post #41
PearlRiver wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people arriving on private jets have always bypassed these bureaucratic procedures. Brotherhood and equality.

Why should private plane passengers be subject to TSA? TSA (paid for by you and me by the way, not for free) exists to protect the public from harm, on public flights by common carriers. It used to be contracted by airlines themselves. Unless you are the most extreme of pro-seatbelt law people, it would make little sense for TSA to screen anyone on a private plane manifest unless the client asked them to.

HN can always be counted on to have a good contingent of temporarily embarrassed billionaires ready to stick up for them at the slightest provocation.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#57

Post by bookofjoe »

gsibble wrote: post #39

[flagged]

Hacker News Guidelines

What to Submit On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

.......................

Nowhere does it say it must have to do with technology.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#58

Post by jdiff »

hammock wrote: post #54
frankbreetz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TSA was created because a plane crashed into a building. Private planes can crash into buildings. Why should they be exempt from TSA checks?

Lots of things can crash into buildings. Should they all be screened by TSA? Drones and their operators prior to every launch? 30 minute helicopter tours and high-rise HVAC drop offs? Private satellites? Or is licensing and registration (of pilots and aircraft and manifest and flight plan) enough?

Commercial drones can't bring down buildings. And they're still subject to an awful lot of regulations.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#59

Post by jermaustin1 »

otterley wrote: post #29

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

Because the fee revenue was created by congress, so the money goes 1/3 to Treasury to help pay national debt (doesn't really make a dent), about $1.6B goes to the government general fund. But FY24 collected $4.5B in fees, but the budget was almost $9.5B.

So even if all the money went to TSA, less than half their budget is covered. There is inherently bloat in that, but that is for a different discussion.

But bigger still, if Congress didn't reappropriate that money from TSA, they'd either have to spend less (less likely), raise taxes (not likely), or go deeper in debt (very likely) in order to cover whatever they are currently covering with their 70% share of the fee.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#60

Post by hammock »

idiotsecant wrote: post #56
hammock wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should private plane passengers be subject to TSA? TSA (paid for by you and me by the way, not for free) exists to protect the public from harm, on public flights by common carriers. It used to be contracted by airlines themselves. Unless you are the most extreme of pro-seatbelt law people, it would make little sense for TSA to screen anyone on a private plane manifest unless the client asked them to.

HN can always be counted on to have a good contingent of temporarily embarrassed billionaires ready to stick up for them at the slightest provocation.

You don’t have to be a billionaire to fly out of an FBO and you don’t have to fly out of an FBO to be interested in freedom of movement. No Kings.
Post reply on HN