Airport scanners still in storage

President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus plan included $25 million for airport screening machines capable of detecting explosives like those carried by the Christmas Day bomber.

But more than a year after passage of the stimulus, the Department of Homeland Security has yet to install a single scanner paid for by the bill.

“We have not outlined our deployment schedule as yet,” said Amy Kudwa, a DHS spokeswoman. “We’re very actively working on a deployment plan. That process has not been completed.”

Records show that it took the department almost seven months just to order the 150 Advanced Imaging Technology units covered by the stimulus bill. A spokesman for Rapiscan, the California-based company that builds the machines, said the company has since delivered more than 100 of them to the Transportation Security Administration.

And that’s where they remain.

Imagine how smoothly our health care will go when the government takes over.