Predictably, Texas Drops Law Threatening To Throw TSA Employees In Jail

May 27, 2011 at 3:03 PM | by Omri | Comments (0)

Given our level of respect for the average politician getting involved in the average travel-related controversy, very rarely will we tell you that an idea is so stupid that it absolutely won't happen. We've spent years covering federal lawmakers who, at the behest of Hotel and Restaurant lobbies, impose fines on foreign tourists in order to promote foreign tourism. After a spike in populist pressure from "passenger rights" lobbies, we saw Congress pass a predictably and obviously counterproductive tarmac law that increased cancellations without doing much about delays. That's the level of sophistication we've come to expect from state and federal officials.

But when the Texas House passed a law threatening to arrest TSA agents for giving passengers enhanced pat-downs, we told you that it was a publicity stunt with flat out zero chance of holding up.

There were a bunch of reasons for that, from political nervousness over terrorism to the ability of the federal government to trump state laws (the original post went into the nitty-gritty of federal rulemaking as it relates to state legislation, if you're interested in details). But the point was that - as a publicity stunt with zero chance of holding up - the legislation was bound to collapse. Which it did earlier this week, when the Texas State House dropped it after federal officials stepped into explain that you just can't do that.

Also worth mentioning is that TSA has developed quite the reputation for petulance. We meant to get to this in our last post about Congress cutting back funding for full-body scanners, but now is as good a time as any. When federal lawmakers talked about taking away the agency's favorite scanners, TSA threatened to give enhanced pat-downs to every passenger. Because they basically have the power to hold the traveling public hostage.

And when Texas lawmakers talked about taking away the agency's ability to give enhanced pat-downs, TSA threatened to shut down every airport in the state. That last threat, more than anything else, is what most directly killed the state's almost too dumb for words legal posturing. Not that it was ever going to last anyway.

[Photo: TSA]

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