Most of the complaints were directed at the Transportation Security Administration, one of the 22 federal agencies transferred to the Homeland Security Department after it was created almost four months ago.

Rep. Harold Rogers (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Homeland Security Department, asked why the TSA hired some airport security screeners with criminal records.

"It certainly raises very serious questions about the hiring practices of TSA's screener work force," Rogers said.

Ridge said TSA, in its rush to meet a congressional deadline to replace the private airport screeners with an all-federal work force by last Nov. 19, used private companies to do the background checks. He said the federal government was now doing its own checks.

Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., complained that passenger airlines were still carrying cargo that had not been checked for explosives. The Associated Press reported last July that cargo was not getting the same scrutiny as passengers or luggage. Congress, which set deadlines for screening passengers and their luggage, has not done the same for cargo.

"If we can't give people confidence that the cargo is being screened, you're leaving a tremendous hole in the system," Markey said.

Air cargo has been a significant source of income for financially stressed airlines, accounting for 12 percent to 15 percent of their revenue, according to the Air Transport Association, the major carriers' trade group. Carrying cargo was worth $13 billion to the airlines in 2001, the last year for which figures are available.

Markey suggested that White House efforts to cut taxes for wealthy Americans was siphoning money that could otherwise be spent on equipment to make sure bombs were not loaded aboard passenger airplanes.

"You won't have the funding if the tax cut goes through," Markey said. "The security of the American people should be first."

Ridge said money wasn't an issue, and promised to report within two weeks on how the department planned to set up a system to screen cargo. He said some of the 6,000 screeners slated to lose their jobs because the airports where they work are overstaffed could instead be shifted to searching cargo.

Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), R-Conn., said the problem was serious. "The secretary of transportation could wake up in the morning and find that six planes were blown out of the sky," he said.

And Rep. Peter DeFazio (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., complained that hundreds of thousands of airport employees, such as those who work at restaurants, did not have to pass through security checkpoints on their way to their jobs.

Ridge said the problem would be addressed by issuing transportation worker identification cards. Those cards, now being developed, would go to employees who underwent thorough background checks.

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On the Net:

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov