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Comment by dave78 | Hacker News Reader

CLEAR and PreCheck are small potatoes. What I want is to require everyone who flies to go through the TSA line, including anyone flying private. Don't allow congresspeople to bypass the TSA (which I believe they're allowed to do). If the people in charge of the government and the multimillionaires and billionaires who control them had to go through that, I bet there'd be a lot more interest in fixing things.

I want to see the President of the United States stand in a crappy TSA line like the rest of us each time he boards his VC25.

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Congresspeople don’t get to skip security lines. The number of times I’ve seen senators and reps flying from DCA on Thursday night get annoyed because the pre check is long and I blast past them in Clear is huge.

My favorite was when it was Rep Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who notably pushed hard for the sort of security theater he was then complaining about. I was already two drinks in when he stormed into the SkyClub all miffed. And then I got to sit next to him on the plane! I doubt the man could see the irony.

> Congresspeople don’t get to skip security lines.

According to many reports, at least some do:

https://traveltips.usatoday.com/exempt-tsa-screening-109841....

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna40341995

And in cases where they don't get to skip it, they definitely get preferential treatment:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/congress-tsa-whitelist_n_5875...

Not to mention some who travel exclusively on private flights (military or otherwise).

> including anyone flying private

Why? The point of TSA in theory is to prevent you from taking a weapon onto a plane. If you are flying on your own plane or one you lease what benefit is there in going through TSA?

The whole point was to stop people hijacking or destroying a plane. If you've got the money to fly private you could just rent the plane for a day and fly it yourself. Plus i don't think there's been a single case of people hijacking a private jet...

> Don't allow congresspeople to bypass the TSA

the only people in commercial airports who can skip TSA AFIAK is diplomats, and that would be based under international law exempting them from search by another nation

> the only people in commercial airports who can skip TSA AFIAK is diplomats

This depends on how you define "in commercial airports". Many commercial airports have a special VIP section, which I would call "in" that airport.

> If you are flying on your own plane or one you lease what benefit is there in going through TSA?

To make them experience the system that they're imposing on everyone else.

Yes, exactly. That and I'm a firm believer that laws in our country should apply to everyone regardless of status. I think it's unconscionable that our leaders have no qualms about passing laws that the rest of us have to follow and then promptly exempting themselves from those laws.

> the only people in commercial airports who can skip TSA AFIAK is diplomats, and that would be based under international law exempting them from search by another nation

This is not accurate. Diplomatic pouches are exempt from search, but those require a bunch of accompanying paperwork. The diplomat or courier still has to go through security screening.

https://www.state.gov/diplomatic-pouches/

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