The opt-out program Glacier Park International Airport sought to privatize its security force instead of using federal workers has been put on hold by the administrator of the federal Transportation Security Administration.

In a letter issued Friday, TSA Administrator John Pistole said that to preserve the federal agency as an “effective federal counterterrorism security network,” the Screening Partnership Program won’t be expanded beyond the 16 airports that use the program to provide security through private screeners.

Glacier Park International is one of several airports that have a pending application with the opt-out program to privatize security workers.

Airport Director Cindi Martin said concerns over adequate staffing levels and customer service prompted the local Airport Board’s decision to privatize, and those concerns still are valid.

“It’s my understanding the [Screening Partnership] Program is not dead,” Martin said Monday in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where she’s attending a spring legislative conference for airline industry leaders. “There certainly may be an opportunity to apply again in the future. There are an awful lot of things at work here.”

Martin said she hopes to get additional information by the end of the week about the status of Glacier Park International’s application.

The 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act — passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — mandated that the TSA establish pilot programs at up to five airports where screening would be performed by private contractors under federal oversight.

The program later was expanded and currently has 16 participants, Pistole said, adding that privatization will continue at those airports.

Larger airports such as those in San Francisco, Kansas City and Rochester, N.Y., have opted out, but seven of the 16 privatized airports are Eastern Montana airports operated as Trinity Technology Group Inc. in Sidney, Glendive, Glasgow, Havre, Wolf Point, Lewistown and Miles City.

The Butte, Missoula and West Yellowstone airports are other Montana airports that have applied for privatization.

“On an industry note, airports as a whole” are concerned about TSA’s recent directive, Martin said. “It takes away a right we have under law.”

The TSA website still offers detailed information and application forms for the Screening Partnership Program.

TSA decides how many federal security employees an airport gets, and Glacier Park International has had several staffing reductions over the past few years. Martin said that was a key reason for the Airport Board moving forward with plans to privatize.

A private contractor can train and hire workers more quickly and brings much more flexibility to the table, she said.

“This isn’t the airport versus TSA,” Martin said. “It comes down to the agency delivering [adequate services] for the traveling public.”

The American Federation of Government Employees — the union representing TSA workers — issued a newsletter to union members on Saturday taking credit for putting the Screening Partnership Program “on ice.”

The union noted it had persuaded TSA leaders to review the program in 2009 after seven Montana airports’ applications were approved and three more Montana airports, including Glacier, said they intended to privatize.

“AFGE believes screening for profit is not what TSA is all about,” the union said in its TSO Voice newsletter. “Unlimited expansion could lead to a total breakdown in the security mission of TSA. The country can’t afford to put profits ahead of national security and let our first line of defense slip back into pre-9/11 mode.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com