US agency ramps up fines for travelers failing to wear masks

The US TSA said Thursday it has recently ramped up proposed fines for travelers failing to wear masks at airports and in other transit modes. The TSA said it has proposed $85,990 fines for 190 mask violators through Monday after more than 5,000 reported incidents since February 2 and issued warnings to more than 2,200. On Monday, two US lawmakers in the House of Representatives disclosed TSA had issued just $2,350 in total fines to 10 passengers through mid-September, despite thousands of reports of airport travelers failing to comply. House Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson and Bonnie Watson Coleman, who chairs the House transportation subcommittee, said despite 4,102 reports of mask-related incidents TSA had issued just 10 fines through Sept. 13. "We urge you to implement these enhanced penalties to curb the rising number of mask-related disruptive passenger incidents," the lawmakers wrote. The TSA said Thursday it has "taken steps to make enforcement and compliance more meaningful, including by increasing the penalties, reducing the processing time from receipt of incident reports to the issuance of enforcement actions and frequent and routine interaction with air carriers to improve incident reporting."<br/>