Leave it up to the Federal Government's bureaucrats to carry out an act of Congress they disagree with and you can bet they will reinterpret the fine print to undermine the intentions of the legislative body that represents the people of the United States of America.

Such is the case with the provision of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that allowed the arming of pilots as a precautionary measure against 9/11 repeats.

The Transportation Security Administration's bureaucrats have made clear their disregard of Congress' intent in the way they have designed the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program to discourage participation by pilots. They have micro-managed the program to achieve the opposite of what Congress intended.

Captain Dave Mackett, the President of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance -- an aviation security working group whose membership includes the Allied Pilots Association, the Southwest Airline Pilots Association, and the Independent Pilots Association -- was quoted in an extensive CNSNews.com series that was posted earlier this year about the reluctance of the TSA to effectively carry out the law as Congress intended. The TSA, noted Mackett, at the time vice president of APSA, had "admitted publicly" to their opposition to arming pilots. However, Congress allowed the TSA leeway in designing the armed pilots program, which is voluntary. Mackett said: "As a result of the program's attributes -- the way the TSA designed the program -- roughly 88 to 90 percent of the original pilots who expressed an interest changed their minds."

For instance, the TSA requires the pilot carrying a weapon to place the weapon in a locked box at any and all times he is outside the cockpit. In case they are deadheading, the locked box is to be placed in luggage, not carried by the pilot, leaving it open to being lost, misplaced, or even stolen.

CNS News.com Senior Staff Writer Jeff Johnson wrote: "The pilots also complain that TSA has issued a `thinly veiled threat' to disclose personal information discovered during background investigations and subjective results of psychological evaluations in an attempt to further discourage pilots from volunteering for the program."

Not surprisingly, commercial airline pilot and former Federal law enforcement agent Dean Roberts was quoted in the CNS News.com series that the FFDO program "has got about 20 more unnecessary steps in the process that make it more hassle than it is worth."

The TSA displays a great deal of enthusiasm for the big-ticket Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) that will be a big hassle for passengers, particularly the 75,000 who are stopped daily -- the vast, vast majority of whom will be singled out as potential terrorists for mistaken reasons. The fact is that CAPPS II will be easy for the smart terrorist to circumvent, making it more a bureaucratic placebo than a true problem-solver.

Yet, when it comes to allowing pilots the right to defend themselves, their planes and their passengers, the TSA's enthusiasm for safer skies dissipates.

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar John Lott reminds us that "until the 1960s, commercial passenger pilots on any flight carrying U.S. mail were required to carry handguns; they were allowed to do so until 1987. Protecting people should be as important as protecting the mail once was."

Fortunately, there are legislators who are concerned about the TSA's obvious recalcitrance in effectively carrying out the intention of Congress. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) intend to make it clear today that the TSA's bureaucrats should stop playing games with air security by introducing the Cockpit Security Technical Corrections and Improvements Act. (Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, is also a sponsor so this bill truly has bipartisan support.)

The Act's sponsors contend that the legislation is needed to force the TSA to implement the Federal Flight Deck Officer program in the manner that Congress intended by requiring faster training of pilots who volunteer, allowing the pilots to carry weapons on international flights and inside and outside the cockpit, and ending the practice of placing the firearm in the locked box.

Airlines that hire pilots have stringent background checks and evaluations and constant reevaluations. That TSA required its own extensive evaluative processes for participating in the FFDO program is costly, unnecessary duplication. The Bunning-Boxer-Wilson legislation halts this wasting of taxpayer dollars.

Furthermore, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, under whose jurisdiction TSA falls, will be required to report to Congress on a quarterly basis how the FFDO program is being carried out.

It is inexcusable that the TSA bureaucrats would take it upon themselves to circumvent the intention of Congress. As in many other Federal agencies, the bureaucrats wield far too much power. However, this time the bureaucrats have clearly overplayed their hand, using stalling and obstructionist tactics to leave our airliners vulnerable to a repeat of 9/11 episodes. The Cockpit Security Technical Corrections and Improvements Act will force the TSA bureaucrats to cut out the smart doubletalk and start carrying out the expressed intention of Congress to allow pilots to protect their planes and passengers.

Paul M. Weyrich is CEO and Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation.

© This column is the property of the Free Congress Foundation and may not be reproduced without their permission. For comments and inquiries, contact Jill S. Farrell at JFarrell@freecongress.org. Visit our website at www.FreeCongress.org