On airport security

The House-passed airport security bill takes to heart hard lessons already learned in Europe and Israel: The best way for government to increase security is to set high standards and let industry worry about how to get there. The necessary deliberation involved in a democratic regulatory process simply does not allow a bureaucracy to adjust quickly enough to changing threats.

The Senate earlier took the politically easier way out, voting to create a new pork barrel of 28,000 federal airport security screener jobs. But even with provisions putting a new security force under Justice Department authority -- and therefore with somewhat lesser civil service protections -- it was far short of the flexible, state-of-the-art change necessary after Sept. 11.

Israel and the Europeans already have tried government-run airport security. It failed, for the simple reason that government moved too slow to respond to new threats. Israel and most European airports now have the world's best air passenger security because they set high standards and leave it to private providers.

Shortly after the House passed its version of airport security legislation, President Bush quickly endorsed it and urged House and Senate conferees to get a finished product to his desk. Congress should heed the president's wishes, thereby allowing companies to invest in airport security upgrades without fear of losing their investments to federal intervention.

-- The Advertiser-Tribune, Tiffin, Ohio