Push Is on to Reintroduce GA to Washington National

Brian Delauter, the general manager of the Transportation Security Administration's General Aviation Branch said, "I have an open goal of increasing [GA] flights into DCA [Washington Reagan International Airport]." He said the current regulations permit up to 48 flights per day, but the current set of security rules, known as the DCA Access Security Program (DASSP), are so restrictive that, "We're not remotely touching that," said Delauter. Once the busiest link of the Signature Flight Support chain, DCA in the post-9/11 environment sees only minimal GA traffic. Delauter and other TSA officials are planning a meeting in July of stakeholders to try to address the shortfall. One of the complications is the overlapping layers of responsibility among federal agencies. It's a three-ring circuit involving not only TSA, but also the Department of Defense and the Secret Service, which is charged with protecting the president and other high-level government officials. The original DASSP rules were enacted in 2005, and Delauter and many others believe it's time for a change to more useable security criteria.