TSA Threatens To Cancel All Flights Out Of Texas If ‘Groping Bill’ Passed
.. if they passed the bill, the TSA would probably have to cancel all flights out of Texas.
Upset about invasive screening techniques at the airport, the Lone Star State was considering a bill that would make a TSA patdown that involves touching “the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person including through the clothing” a misdemeanor, allowing Texas law enforcement to arrest TSA officials and charge them with sexual harassment. It would have meant that TSA officials could be fined $4,000 and spend up to a year in jail for doing their jobs of feeling up prospective fliers.
The Transportation Security Administration was not happy when the bill was passed in the Texas House of Representatives, blogging in response that Texas is barred by the U.S. Constitution from regulating the federal government.
On Tuesday, the bill was set to be voted on in the Senate. This called for more of a response than a simple blog post. Federal government officials descended on the Capitol to hand out a letter (embedded below) from the Texas U.S. Attorney letting senators know that if they passed the bill, the TSA would probably have to cancel all flights out of Texas. As much as they love their state, the idea of shutting down airports and trapping people in Texas was scary enough to get legislators to reconsider their support for the groping bill…
Republican Dan Patrick, who was the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, withdrew it when he realized he would not have the votes he needed to pass it. “There was a time in this state, there was a time in our history, where we stood up to the federal government and we did not cower to rules and policies that invaded the privacy of Texans,” he said with regret, reports the Texas Tribune. No last stand for Texas this week.
The letter from U.S. attorney John Murphy said Texas could not pass a statute that conflicts with federal law. If it had, the TSA would have sought an emergency stay and until that had been granted, would have had to shut down Texas airports as it “could not ensure the safety of passengers and crew.”
“Naturally, Texans didn’t take to well to being threatened in that manner,” said Rep. David Simpson, the author of the bill, in a written statement.
They may not like it, but it worked.