Portman Questions TSA Administration Officials on Airport Security Lapses

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, questioned administration officials including TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger on what steps have been taken to improve airport security screening. Specifically, Portman asked what has been done to improve our screening processes since an undercover investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General found that security screeners failed to detect weapons, mock explosives, and other prohibited items 95 percent of the time at airports across the country. Portman also expressed his concern over the risk posed by Cuban security gaps given the increased travel activity between Afghanistan and Cuba and the commencement of air travel between the U.S. and Cuba.

Excerpts of Portman's remarks can be found below and you can watch Portman's questioning here.

Portman: "You're talking to a pretty tough audience here because we're all frequent flyers. I go back and forth from Ohio every week a couple times. We're also all pre-check, I would think. And so, when I'm in the pre-check line in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland, it's a lot shorter. It's not like Dulles or National where a lot of people are in pre-check. So a lot of the questions we're asking you are about not pre-check but how do we be sure to expedite everybody. By the way, the TSA folks who I deal with every week are courteous, they're professional, the vast majority of them. The vast majority. I remember being here at a hearing recently where Senator Carper said that he thanks them as he goes through as I try to do and I say "thanks for keeping us safe.' They look at you kind of funny, like "no one's ever said that to me before.'… On the other hand, they do all work for us as taxpayers … In terms of the training, just quickly, on the customer service side, what are you doing in terms of measuring performance and training?

Neffenger: "That was one of my big concerns when I came in. I extend beyond costumer service. This is what true public service is all about: providing an important service to the public in a way that treats them with respect and dignity and that recognizes the inherent inconvenience of what you're doing…."

Portman: "I appreciate that attitude and that approach, and I know that's your personal approach. I do think it actually expedites the process as well. There's a safety aspect to this also in addition to the fact that it is a matter of customer service for the taxpayers who are inconvenienced. This report last June is incredibly troubling … 95 percent. 95 percent, so in 95 percent of the time, TSA was not finding dangerous items. Security screeners failed to detect weapons, mock explosives, other prohibited items 95% of the time. Shocking. That's before your time. We also found there were 73 individuals employed by the aviation agency who were on the terror watch list. And at the time I did some questions to you as part of your confirmation. You indicated that you were going to immediately put in place some things that Secretary Johnson was talking about to address both those issues and that you were going to look at the more systemic problems. Can you give us a quick report on where we are on that 95 percent? Mr. Roth said that you continue to do testing and audits but you didn't tell us what the percentage was."

Neffenger: "I can't talk about percentage of what we're finding in open session but what I can tell you is that we're better. As you know, one of the biggest concerns I have is to first of all find out why we had a failure rate of that magnitude. As it turns out, it was really that we were asking the front line work force to do something directly in opposition to what their job was. If their job is to ensure that something doesn't get passed at checkpoint, well then you can't ride them about moving people faster through the checkpoint. So, if I put myself in the shoes of a frontline officer, their torn between "I'm told I can't hold things up' and "I've got something to look at.' So we've gotten better at that. We've retrained the whole workforce. And I think that we're significantly better. I'm hoping that the Inspector General's testing bares that out as we go forward."

Portman: "I'm very concerned about the agreement the administration's made with Cuba. Concerned about TSA opening an additional two airports without any kind of screening that we would consider acceptable. These are all going to be, as I understand it, points of departure the United States. I know there's been travel from Afghanistan to Cuba and so on… I'm want to express my concern right now that we be sure that those airports are fully vetted and they have the proper security screening in place."

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