'Trust Us,' and 'We Need You,' They Said; 'You're Screwed, Chumps!' They Meant

Hey -- it's just another promise by the TSA, the agency that's long on spending for its needs, but short on keeping its promises.

Case in point: the Washington Post reports that the TSA promised, verbally and in writing, to pay those soon-to-be-fired private screeners stay-on bonuses of $500 to $2000, if only they'd help out, and stay on the job until the TSA's hand-picked special screeners could kick them out of their jobs. Sure enough, plenty stayed, doing the jobs their replacements would get twice as much money, plus benefits, for doing.

And, sure enough, they're still waiting for their promised bonuses.

The Post's Sara Kehaulani Goo, who covers such things, says the TSA is simply watching out for the taxpayers -- that it doesn't want to be over-billed for services. In the meantime, those screeners, many of whom remain unemployed, aren't getting any...

The Post explains it thus: "During the transition, the TSA signed contracts totaling $1.6 billion with 74 security firms... The contracts increased pay for the private security screeners from minimum wage to about $10 or $12 an hour, in addition to the bonus. However, the Transportation Department Inspector General criticized those contracts in August, alleging that the security firms overbilled the agency for hours that screeners did not work. The inspector general also questioned why screeners' pay doubled at some companies, and why some screeners who used to make $11 an hour were being paid as much as $28 per hour."

Yet, they were still making the promises into November, according to some who stayed the course.

The security firms weren't paid in full, either. The Post reports that one firm, "...said the TSA owes it $7 million in payments spanning the past several weeks. Another ...said the agency owes it $3 million for the same period."

More paperwork required. More delays planned. More chances to deny payment: your TSA at work.

Goo quotes a TSA spokesman as having said the TSA "...notified each of the 74 companies this week that they will receive their portion of the $30 million in bonus payments to be passed along to screeners. The companies must first complete and return paperwork before the agency cuts the checks." More hoops; more delays -- and the fired screeners are late on rent payments, and electric bills; and their credit is being damaged; and the agency that made the promises is looking for more ways to deny what they owe.

Perhaps the TSA's higher-ups should take some of that "sensitivity training" they put the screeners through.

FMI: www.tsa.gov