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by 0x0000000 913 days ago
If the TSA isn't even a jobs program anymore, what is it?
3 comments

A warm blanket for an electorate poor at risk management.
These are correct questions to ask, and it likely reveals the answer.

No Senator or representative can have a platform of repealing national security measures, especially if something goes wrong. But you can delegate the discretion to the associated federal agency, and the agency can choose to keep lowering the security threshold until there isn’t one again.

I don't disagree at all, but the natural incentives for those federal agencies are to grow and to do more and acquire more staff and budget, not to cut back.
Cynical best guess - 1. It's not a direct payout to Vanderlande, as that's a Dutch company owned by Toyota. So it's not some MIC cash for contracts which is the usual guess. 2. But, it's got a single big location in the US - Georgia specifically. I'd guess there's some boost to manufacturing there? Loudermilk as the pork maker would be my guess given the votes in that area, but you'd have to see who got this authorized.
That's it. While it's still a job programs, it's also a MIC pork projects sales channel for privacy-invasive, experimental, and useless tech.