Stephanie Rowe: 100 percent secure air travel not possible

powerful work force and I have an incredible amount of respect for them. They probably have the hardest job in the country because they physically touch a few million people every day. What other government agency or work force does that?

What I hope happens is that the work force has a voice and an active role in how aviation security is done. I think leveraging their knowledge, expertise, and passion is a huge win for everyone. I hope whatever happens will allow them to innovate and be creative, and drive ideas forward. We need to really let them use their gut, intuition, knowledge, and expertise – TSA has screened some four billion people – they know what is normal and what is not normal. It becomes instinctual if you will.

As the TSA workforce moves forward, whether it is union or other, my hope is that it is allowed to drive and own their mission, have an active role in that, and is rewarded in kind. What I worry about with unionization is a separation and a barrier between the workforce and the mission. If that occurs that is unfortunate, because they know better than anyone about what needs to be done on the front lines every day.

HSNW: Information sharing was a big topic at the recent AFCEA Homeland Security conference in DC. In your mind what are the biggest challenges or hurdles to implementing these types of information systems across the government?

Rowe: When you are talking about either cross agency or cross department programs, it really comes down to three things. The first thing is what the policy is and the authorities. What can you share and what you cannot share is a big one. You have to be really careful about that because CBP’s [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] authority and mission is very different from TSA’s authority and mission, and you have to be careful that those agencies do not get cross wired in terms of what their authorities are.

Then the second challenge is budgetary. Who funds the program and is there a way to share that cost? When you just think about all the rules about spending money and if somebody else is going to spend that money and I do not, will I lose it the following year? Or if someone else pays for the function, then I might not get that money next year. I