It seems as if the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) won’t be getting any cash to buy additional airport body scanners in 2012.
The Obama administration’s request was unceremoniously denied by the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee, which released a $40.6 billion DHS security budget without allocating $76 million to purchase 275 of the controversial machines.
However, the 2012 federal budget did include a whopping $7.8 billion (total) for the TSA – representing a $125 million increase from current levels.
“[The budget makes] the most of our limited resources,” said Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky).
“[It also allows us] to rein in unnecessary and wasteful spending in virtually every area of government – including homeland security.”
The above-mentioned scanners have been harshly criticized and ridiculed over the past year.
Nevertheless, TSA Administrator John Pistole has doggedly defended the technology, insisting they represent “the best possibility we have right now of detecting Christmas Day type [of] explosives.”
[Via The Hill]
