Budget deal includes cap on TSA personnel

Under the deal struck last week to keep the federal government from shutting down, the Transportation Security Administration can have no more than 46,000 screeners.

The TSA currently has more than 45,000 screeners, officials there said Tuesday, so the budget deal would not reduce the size of the agency. The agreement will, however, prohibit the agency from growing, which House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) has identified as one of his top goals.

Mica has repeatedly criticized the TSA, saying recently he wanted it to privatize airport screeners so the agency did not have any security personnel at all. 

"I envision TSA getting out of the personnel business," Mica said during a speech to the Washington Aero Club last month. "We've got to do a better job utilizing our resources."

Mica, who helped create the agency through legislation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks, said it has sprawled to become "bigger than five government agencies."

Mica's office did not comment on the TSA cap Tuesday.

A short-term continuing resolution was approved late last Friday to avoid a shutdown of the federal government, but legislative language for a bill that would fund the government through the end of September was not drafted in either chamber until Tuesday. The House is scheduled to vote on that legislation Thursday.