After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Congress ordered all but five commercial airports to switch from privately employed passenger screeners to a federal workforce operating under the auspices of the newly created Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Four years after the federal takeover, the TSA has been inundated with complaints and has been the subject of unfavorable evaluations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A recent GAO study found, for the first time, statistically significant evidence that private passenger screeners perform better than their federal counterparts. In light of this new finding—and the TSA’s record of poor performance—Robert Poole, director of transportation at the Reason Foundation, has developed a new model for addressing the failing airport security apparatus. At this conference, Mr. Poole will present his model and a panel of experts will discuss his new approach.