Sen. Schumer calls for TSA to create 'passenger advocate'

The Transportation Security Administration should create a passenger advocate at airport security checkpoints to address allegations of inappropriate screenings, New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) is arguing.

Schumer's proposal follows reports of three elderly women alleging they were strip-searched before flights at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The agency has defended the searches as following proper procedure, but Schumer said an impartial arbiter is necessary.

"While the safety and security of our flights must be a top priority, we need to make sure that flying does not become a fear-inducing, degrading, and potentially humiliating experience,” Schumer said in a statement.

“Right now, passengers who feel that their rights are about to be violated have nowhere to turn, but by training passenger advocates at each of our airports, the TSA can finally give passengers a voice,” he continued.

Schumer held a press conference to announce the proposal with a New York state senator and the sons of New York residents Lenore Zimmerman, 85, and Ruth Sherman, age 88, who said TSA agents asked them to remove their clothes to inspect them before flights. TSA said it reached out to the women, but the agency denied the security inspections constituted a strip search.

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