The Aviation and Transportation Security Act calls for the Federal Government to provide passenger and baggage screening at all but 5 of the Nation’s 429 commercial-service airports as of November 19, 2002. The other five will opt out of direct Federal passenger screening by hiring a qualified private security firm for this purpose. After a 2-year period of direct Federal provision, all other airports will then be allowed to opt out by choosing a government-certified security firm instead. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is having difficulty in recruiting and training enough screening personnel to meet the November 19th deadline. A significant expansion of the opt-out pilot program is needed because a sample size of 1 percent of the Nation’s airports is meaningless, and expanding the pilot program would be a major help to the TSA. There are a number of reasons why airport directors want to opt out of TSA-provided screening, such as increasing the quality of airport screening and having a more uniform, less-fragmented security system. Congress has an opportunity to address these problems in easing the TSA’s immediate hiring and training burden by increasing the number of opt-out airports to 40+ to provide for an adequate sample size, and extending the deadline for both federalized and new contracted screening workforces from November 19 to December 31, 2002. Other short-term fine tuning includes having the TSA encourage large and medium hubs to apply; extending the scope to baggage screening; letting airport operators be the contracting party to hire and supervise qualified contractors; and permitting foreign ownership of qualified screening companies. According to European experience, the best results are achieved via a unified approach, under which the airport director has day-to-day control over the provision of all security services. The airport’s security system interfaces with various law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as appropriate. 3 tables, 18 endnotes, appendix