Democrats Grill TSA on Security With Resources Shifted to Border
Democrats grill TSA on airport security as hundreds of agents are deployed to southern border.
(Bloomberg) -- Democrats on the House Oversight Committee questioned the Transportation Security Administration’s ability to mitigate risks found by covert tests that revealed threats breaching airport security, especially as hundreds of TSA agents are deployed to help secure the U.S. southern border.
Tuesday’s hearing, featuring testimony from TSA Administrator David Pekoske, followed a 2016 request from the committee for a report on the agency’s response to recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General. Chairman Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, said the findings, “confirmed many of our worst fears.”
The GAO report, declassified in April, found that TSA’s Security Operations did take a risk-informed approach for its covert tests -- used to probe possible security vulnerabilities -- relying instead on “professional judgment” to decide which scenarios to test. Nine of the TSA vulnerabilities GAO identified since 2015 had not been resolved as of September 2018, the report said.
The report on TSA’s security challenges comes as the agency has allowed hundreds of TSA employees to voluntarily shift to bolster screening at the U.S.-Mexico border, a decision criticized by Democrats and lauded by Republicans on the committee. While Cummings recognized the influx of migrants on the southern border, he said the TSA has other responsibilities that are too important for limited resources to be diverted.
“We’ve got to look out for the flying public and at the same time we have to look at the border as well,” Cummings said. “I’m convinced we can do more than one thing at one time.”
‘Increased Risk’
Cummings during the hearing cited a letter from TSA stating that 294 agency employees have been approved to join the 350 already re-deployed to the border. Cummings quoted the letter as saying these moves pose “a potential increased risk to in-flight security.”
In addition to Pekoske, the hearing’s witnesses from the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s office detailed TSA’s efforts to comply with recommendations, as well as the agency’s shortcomings.
The GAO’s Managing Director of Homeland Security, Charles Johnson, said since the April declassification of the report, five of the nine pending recommendations are still open. Two of the recommendations have been closed and two are currently being reviewed.
Johnson said that his concern comes from the TSA taking months to assign these recommendations to a department so that mitigation can begin. He also regarded the ability of the covert tests to provide quality information as “not so good.”
The DHS Inspector General conducted its own covert tests and found both human and technological error within the security check process. As part of his testimony in the hearing, Donald Bumgardner, the deputy assistant IG for DHS, said 37 security recommendations for TSA, some dating back to 2014, have not been addressed.
Quaterly Reports
Pekoske said they are working to address the issues in a timely fashion, but there is an increase in threats with more passengers flying. He said he’s aiming for the end of this year to close recommendations from fiscal year 2017 and prior. He said vulnerabilities identified after that date will take longer to address.
According to Pekoske, TSA will perform check-ins quarterly and the findings will be provided to the House Committee on Oversight.
Cummings said he will introduce the Covert Testing and Risk Mitigation Improvement Act to “establish standards for covert testing and require TSA to track and report its progress in resolving vulnerabilities as part of its annual budget submission to Congress.”
Even if this bill eventually gets a vote in the Democratic-led House, its prospects are uncertain in the Republican-led Senate.
--With assistance from Alan Levin and Michaela Ross.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jarrell Dillard in Washington at jdillard11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anna Edgerton at aedgerton@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman
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