Las Vegas Airport Meets, Looks beyond Federal Security Deadline.

Byline: Chris Jones

Nov. 19--With its new passenger screeners in place for several weeks, officials at McCarran International Airport have downplayed the local significance of today's deadline requiring all U.S. airports to employ federal security workers at each passenger checkpoint.

"We're excited about the anniversary, but we're already looking ahead to what we can do next to improve security and customer service at this airport," said Jim Blair, McCarran's federal security director.

Still, Blair said he's pleased with the progress the Transportation Security Administration has made in Las Vegas and other cities during the 12 months since President Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that created TSA, a federal agency charged with improving security at the nation's airports, rail hubs, ports and other key infrastructure elements.

"We've come a long way in a year, but we've still got plenty of work ahead of us," Blair said.

Although he said hiring and training nearly 57,000 TSA employees was a difficult challenge, spokesman Nico Melendez said TSA received nearly 1.4 million applications. As of result of such interest, he said all of the nation's 429 passenger airports are now using federal screeners.

"This is the culmination of a yearlong push since the president singed the bill (to create TSA)," Melendez said. "Our goal has been all along to provide first-class security and first-class customer service while aiming to meet the mandates set by Congress.