TSA Pockets Passengers' Change

You know all that spare change that you have in your pockets that  you place in plastic bins or bowls before you walk through security checkpoints in airports to avoid setting off the metal detectors? Many people are walking off without retrieving their coins, and the TSA is pocketing that money. 

A whopping $409,000.00 plus in coins was left behind in 2010, with the most losses in the following major airports:

Passengers at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York left the most change in 2010 ($46,918.06), followed by Los Angeles International ($19,110.83), Hartsfield Atlanta International ($16,523.83), San Francisco International ($15,908.02), and Miami International ($15,844.83), according to the TSA.

Of the $409,085.56- $376,480.39 of it was U.S. currency (from pennies to dollar coins) and $32,605.17 was foreign currency. And that's nothing- TSA has collected over $2.1 million since 2008.
Most people don't really care about small coins, I've seen piles of pennies strewn across parking lots, but those pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters add up, so it's worth holding on to, and the best place to put that change (and all your other metal) is in a plastic bag inside your carry-on before you leave home.
The TSA has allegedly been using the ill-gotten gains to help fund its operations, but Congress is pushing to change that. Florida Republican Jeff Miller wants that money to go to the USO  instead, and introduced a bill to Congress that will do just that.

"Allowing TSA to keep unclaimed taxpayer money for any and all purposes is an egregious breach of its duty to the public that it serves," Miller wrote in a recent letter to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. "This money should be put to good use, and there is no better organization to use this money wisely than the USO."

A House committee passed the measure, next it goes to the full House for approval.