More Than One Year After Stimulus Passage, DHS Yet To Install A Single Airport Scanner Paid For By Bill

Rapiscan Technology, courtesy of CNET.com

The 2009 Stimulus Bill included $25 million dollars in funding for airport security scanners designed to detect explosive devices similar to those worn by Christmas-Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Department of Homeland Security, however, more than a year after passage has yet to install a single one of the more than 150

Advanced Imaging Technology units it ordered from the funds. In fact, records have shown that it took DHS more than seven months before even placing such an order, with the one hundred having been delivered to date currently sitting in storage.

According to a DHS spokesman, the first machines will be in operation within two weeks, with all machines scheduled to be in use by the end of this year. The same official stated that the delay resulted from “selecting airports and negotiating for the space, then working with the airports on such issues as remodeling to provide privacy rooms.”

Read more at Politico.