WASHINGTON (AP) -- New Jersey lawmakers on Thursday criticized a federal plan to take security personnel from Newark International Airport and put them at Teterboro Airport.
The beefed-up security is needed at Teterboro because Reagan National Airport here will soon be reopened for use by private planes. But for security reasons those flights can only originate from 12 other U.S. airports, one of which is Teterboro.
Democratic Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, and Rep. Steven Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, whose district includes Teterboro, said the Transportation Security Administration needs to provide Teterboro with its own security force instead of shifting workers from Newark.
''We agree that TSA personnel are needed at Teterboro to ensure safety at the airport, but it should not come as a result of Newark Liberty losing TSA screening resources,'' the three wrote in a letter dated Thursday to TSA Director David Stone.
The three said Newark's screening force is woefully understaffed. Currently, there are 1,250 screeners; airport officials say 1,448 are needed to do an effective job.
Reagan National has been closed to private planes since Sept. 11, 2001. Under the new rules, only four private flights an hour for 12 hours a day will be allowed into the airport.
Most are expected to be corporate jets. The rules require strict background checks for crew members and require that an armed law enforcement officer be on board.
The other 11 airports allowed to originate private flights to Reagan National are: Seattle-Tacoma; Boston Logan; Houston Hobby; White Plains, N.Y.; LaGuardia, N.Y.; Chicago Midway; Minneapolis/St. Paul; West Palm Beach, Fla.; San Francisco; Philadelphia, and Lexington, Ky.
