Senator Schumer accuses TSA of slip in foreign students' background checks

In the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, many flight schools that operate nationwide are still not properly screening foreign students, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday.
Schumer blasted the Transportation Security Administration for allowing 8,000 foreign students to attend flight schools or obtain pilot’s licenses without proper background checks. The TSA is supposed to conduct a federally mandated security check before flight school instruction or enrollment.
Schumer said the TSA is asleep at the switch and that he would like to see an audit of the agency followed by new fines for schools that fail to provide proper background checks. This, he said, could be putting lives in danger.
“We need a full investigation of the TSA to figure out why this is still happening,” Schumer said. “The problem lies with both the schools and the TSA. Some of the schools don’t even ask for any documentation.”
TSA representatives denied students were falling through the cracks and maintained that they are following the 2003 law that requires them to screen foreign students.
“TSA checks every foreign national that applies for flight training in this country or at FAA-certified facilities anywhere in the world,” said a spokesman who did not want his name used. “Further, the claim that 8,000 students have not been checked by the Alien Flight School Program is inaccurate.”
Schumer, who said he obtained his numbers from an internal report, said he would like to see the 8,000 foreign students checked by the FBI and that schools should receive beefed up fines if they fail to comply with the law.
02/03/08 Brandon Bain/Newsday, USA