Clark Howard's Tips

April 18, 2006

Busy airports are going to be way short of epartment of Homeland Security screening workers for the peak summer season. In fact, some are predicting that waits could be up to three hours at some airports.

Clark hopes that the embarrassment causes the Transportation Security Administration to get on the ball and hire enough screeners to eliminate this problem.

The airports at greatest risk are Los Angeles, Orlando, both Chicago airports, San Diego, Boston, Phoenix, San Jose and Detroit, according to the Wall Street Journal.

So, why did it happen? Homeland Security decided to change the way it hires people by leaving the responsibility up to local managers instead of using a contract service. The problem is that officials discontinued one process before starting another, and the turnover is just too high.

Another story Clark read reported that the worker shortage is so bad that the department has to fly screeners to various airports to fill in, putting them up in hotels and paying them a per diem all the while.

To prevent these long wait times look at the TSA Web site, tsa.gov.

Consumer advice courtesy of