President Donald Trump's proposed fiscal year 2019 budget calls for nearly $71 million to purchase 145 new CT airport scanners to check carry-on bags, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Here are five things to know.
1. President Trump's 2019 budget has yet to win congressional approval.
2. CT scanners are medical imaging mainstays and have only recently been scaled down to a size that can scan carry-on luggage.
3. Transportation Security Administration administrator David Pekoske praised the budget request and claimed the scanner can view the contents of a bag in 3-D, allowing security officers to flip the image 360 degrees.
4. This could speed up the screening process by allowing passengers to leave all items in the bag. To finance this, the proposed budget calls for raising the security fee charged to all fliers by $1 per one-way trip in 2019 and $1.65 in 2020, raising the total fee in 2020 to $8.25 per one-way ticket.
5. The budget proposal also calls for a nearly $2 increase to two separate fees charged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on passengers entering the U.S. via boat or airplane.
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