House panel urges new TSA chief to fix problems with screening, workers

WASHINGTON – TSA will retrain every airport screen by the end of the September, the agency's new chief told a House panel Wednesday. The effort comes after a report earlier this year from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general that found screeners missed mock bombs and weapons in tests 67 of 70 times.

Transportation Security Administrator Peter Neffenger, who spent 34 years as an officer in the Coast Guard before taking the helm at TSA earlier this month said he met with the inspector general to learn how the failures happened. “My highest priority is to ensure solutions to the recent covert testing failures,” Neffenger said. “This is a huge concern and it greatly disturbs me that we had that failure at the checkpoint."

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the panel's chairman, said the findings "shatter public confidence" in the TSA. “A reported 96% failure rate to detect explosives is completely unacceptable," he said.

Neffenger also told the panel of other changes, including a plan to study perimeter security at airports after incidents of children stowing away on planes, new restrictions on who can pass through expedited airport screening and a fresh look at daily security screenings for all airport workers. Neffenger also said he envisions a moved toward using biometrics, such as fingerprints or iris scans, as boarding passes.

Lawmakers had also raised concerns about TSA’s expansion of the popular Pre-check screening program, which allows travelers who volunteer information about themselves to keep their shoes and belts on at checkpoints, and leave laptops and small containers of fluid in the bags.  Despite requiring fingerprints and an $85 fee for five years, more than 1 million people have signed up. In order to boost participation among 1.8 million daily airline travelers, the program expanded in recent years to include travelers randomly selected at checkpoints or those examined by bomb-sniffing dogs or behavior-detection officers. The House approved legislation Monday to require Pre-check be limited to travelers who belong to the program.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., asked Neffenger if he supported scaling back participation under a policy that has been called "managed inclusion."

“I have ordered a phasing out of the managed inclusion program," said Neffenger, himself a member of Customs and Border Protection's Global Entry program, which is similar to Pre-check. “The goal is to have a fully vetted population in the Pre-check program – people we trust going through the program."

Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., asked whether TSA would consider screening all airport workers when they arrive at work even though background checks and identification cards, after charges of gun and drug smuggling among workers at airports in Atlanta, Dallas and Oakland. Airports have resisted 100% worker screening as costly and inefficient.

Another inspector general's report found 73 aviation workers represented potential links to terrorism because of a screening loophole for TSA. The agency conducts background checks for 2 million workers such as mechanics and shop clerks against an FBI watch list. But TSA does not have access to a broader database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center. TSA asked for access to the broader list in May 2014 and expects access by the end of 2015.

Neffenger said he plans in August to visit Florida airports with 100% worker screening to see how they work and whether the process could be extended nationwide.

Stowaway incidents also worried lawmakers. A 15-year-old boy climbed into the wheel well of a plane at the airport in San Jose, Calif., and survived a flight to Hawaii in June 2014.

But Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., cited a case when he was a local prosecutor where a 16-year-old boy fell to his death in Milton, Mass., in November 2010 after climbing aboard a plane in Charlotte, N.C.

From 2001 to 2011, there were 1,388 perimeter security breaches, Keating said. But the number of vulnerability assessments conducted by multiple security agencies has dropped from 60 airports per year a decade ago to only 12 last year, he said.

“If a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old can penetrate security, then we’re vulnerable,” Keating said. “If they can stow away themselves, someone with a different motivation could stow away an explosive.”

Neffenger said TSA conducts annual inspections of airport perimeters. He plans to attend an inspection to learn more about them. “I absolutely agree that perimeter security is a concern,” he said.

The inspector general also urged encryption of airline boarding passes to boost security. Airlines resisted encryption because of the $500 million cost, but carriers that participate in Pre-check adopted technology, called digital signature, in 2012. TSA awarded a contract in April 2014 to test and evaluate an unspecified "credential authentication technology."

Looking to the future, Neffenger said boarding passes are challenging for screeners to review because each airline has its own form. He envisions travelers using a unique part of their body as identification and to serve as their boarding pass, rather than a piece of paper.

“I think we can eliminate the boarding pass," Neffenger said.