Editing Transportation Security Administration (section)

==History and mission==
[[File:US-TransportationSecurityAdmin-DOTSeal.svg|thumb|180px|TSA's seal when first established under the [[United States Department of Transportation|Department of Transportation]]]]
[[File:ITSA insignia pin ntegrity.jpg|180px|thumb|Historical TSA design used on TSO uniform patch, coin, and Year of Service pins]]
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The TSA was created largely in response to the terrorist attacks of [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001]], which revealed weaknesses in existing airport security procedures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blalock |first=Garrick |last2=Kadiyali |first2=Vrinda |last3=Simon |first3=Daniel H. |date=November 2007 |title=The Impact of Post-9/11 Airport Security Measures on the Demand for Air Travel |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/519816 |journal=[[The Journal of Law & Economics]] |volume=50 |issue=4 |doi=10.1086/519816 |issn=0022-2186 |jstor=10.1086/519816}}</ref> At the time, a myriad of [[private security companies]] managed air travel security under contract to individual airlines or groups of airlines that used a given airport or terminal facility.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/airports-before-911_n_57c85e17e4b078581f11a133|title=This Is What It Was Like To Go To The Airport Before 9/11|first=Lydia|last=O'Connor|date=September 11, 2016|website=HuffPost}}</ref> Proponents of placing the government in charge of airport security, including Transportation Secretary [[Norman Mineta]], argued that only a single federal agency could best protect passenger aviation.

Congress agreed, and authorized the creation of the TSA in the [[Aviation and Transportation Security Act]], which was signed into law by President [[George W. Bush]] on November 19, 2001. Bush nominated [[John Magaw]] on December 10, and he was confirmed by the Senate the following January. The agency was initially placed under the [[United States Department of Transportation]] but was moved to the [[United States Department of Homeland Security|Department of Homeland Security]] when that department was formed on March 9, 2003.

The new agency's effort to hire screeners to begin operating security checkpoints at airports represents a case of a large-scale staffing project completed over a short period. The only effort in U.S. history that came close to it was the testing of recruits for the armed forces in [[World War II]]. During the period from February to December 2002, 1.7 million applicants were assessed for 55,000 screening jobs.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Landy |first1=Frank J. |title=Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology |last2=Conte |first2=Jeffery M. |date=December 26, 2012 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |isbn=9781118291207 |edition=4th |pages=263}}</ref>