In the News

National Journal
By: Priscilla Alvarez

A report from Homeland Security Department Inspector General John Roth that revealed gaps in the Transportation Security Administration's security procedures has the House Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation security uneasy.

"Terrorists only have to be right once. To defend ourselves, we have to be right 100 percent of the time. Millions of travelers pass through our nation's airports every year, and we need to know the systems in place will protect them," said Republican Rep. Michael McCaul during a hearing Tuesday. "But in recent weeks, TSA has given us more concern than confidence."

The committee met for the second time Tuesday to discuss the report, released this month, which found the TSA failed to identify 73 individuals "employed by major airlines, airport vendors, and other employers" who may have had links to terrorism. The report also states that those individuals were cleared "despite representing a potential transportation security threat." During Tuesday's hearing, however, Stacey Fitzmaurice, TSA's deputy assistant administrator, tried to assure the committee that the agency reviewed those cases and found that those individuals did not pose a threat to "transportation security."

The report explained that holes in TSA's vetting of workers was, in part, the result of a lack of information, though it noted that the vetting process for aviation workers was "generally effective." Fitzmaurice added at the hearing that the agency and the department at large are "aggressively pursuing automated access to the data and working to expedite the process and interagency coordination" as requested by the inspector general in the report.

But that didn't ease the concerns of the committee members. "It strikes me, as I'm sure everyone, as sloppy, and there is no place for sloppiness when we are dealing with the security of our nation's aviation system," said Democratic Subcommittee Ranking Member Kathleen Rice in addressing the agency's inability to access certain data.

The report also found that records in TSA's vetting databases "contained potentially inaccurate or missing data," including Social Security numbers, a situation that GOP Rep. Earl L. "Buddy" Carter called "disturbing."

Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe asked Roth if this was a situation where a change in the law may be required so that the agency could receive the necessary information. "It may very well be," Roth said, suggesting that TSA be allowed to work with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and "determine whether or not they will be able to have access to this information."

"TSA is being treated for all intents and purposes as if they were a Walmart—that an individual holding a cited badge for recurrent criminal-history checks stands in line with Walmart—to determine whether or not there will be a criminal-history check," Roth said, likening TSA's vetting process to that of the megastore.

This month, a separate investigation of the TSA revealed that agents failed 67 of 70 security tests that included undercover investigators passing through checkpoints with potential weapons.

"The numbers in these reports never look good out of context, but they are a critical element in the continual evolution of our aviation security," said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson in a June 1 statement. "We take these findings very seriously in our continued effort to test, measure, and enhance our capabilities and techniques as threats evolve." Johnson said in a separate statement that day that TSA's acting administrator would be "reassigned" to the Office of State and Local Law Enforcement at DHS headquarters.