Less than a day after announcing that the air marshal program was being scaled back due to budget cuts, the Transportation Security Administration has done a dramatic u-turn.
As MSNBC is reporting under the headline, “Flip-flop on air marshal schedules,” the TSA will “immediately begin scheduling air marshals back on cross-country and international flights.”
It’s nice to see the government correct a major league screw-up so quickly. This isn’t one of those examples of miscommunication — the TSA really was going to cut back on air marshals despite the raised threat of renewed terrorist hijackings. But this is a perfect example of an administration agency responding quickly and efficiently to outrage.
It seems most of the country was, shall we say, troubled by the announcement that there’d be fewer marshals on high-risk flights. Several members of Congress, most notably Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), were contacting officials all morning to demand the air marshals program not suffer a single cutback. Looks like the pleas were heard loud and clear.