Some U.S. lawmakers are angry about TSA’s new $50 million clothing budget

TSA agents in their current uniforms at a a TSA security checkpoint in terminal 4 at LAX, Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles May 2, 2011. Danny Moloshok / Reuters

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Sequester or not, the men and women of the TSA do need clothes. But some people can't miss an opportunity to bash the agency over unimportant things.

-Jason Clampet

Excerpt from Politico

Mar 07, 2013 5:41 am

Members of Congress are decrying the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to sign a $50 million contract to buy uniforms just a week before sequestration took effect.

TSA defends the deal — noting that its old contract had expired, and saying that without a new one it couldn’t have continued buying uniforms for airport screeners. And the agency says $50 million is a ceiling, not the amount it intends to spend on uniforms in the next year.

But the optics of such a big, badly timed contract are horrible, lawmakers said Wednesday

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Tags: politics, sequester, tsa

http://twitter.com/TSABlogTeam TSA Blog Team

Bob here from the TSA Blog.

The current contract to replace worn uniforms and provide uniforms for new hires expired on February 17, 2013.

The new DHS-wide contract to purchase all component uniforms won’t take effect until next year, so TSA signed an interim two-year contract on February 22, 2013 with a $50-million dollar ceiling to continue to procure new uniforms. Fifty million dollars represents the contract’s maximum value, not the amount expended. Without the contract bridge, TSA would not have been able to procure additional uniforms which are lower than or equal to the cost of any other uniform worn by officers in the federal government.

Thanks,

Bob Burns
TSA Blog
Blog.tsa.gov

Some U.S. lawmakers are angry about TSA’s new $50 million clothing budget

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