TSA Says It Will Retrain Frontline Officers By October

Peter Neffenger, just 25 days into his job leading the Transportation Security Administration, got a stern warning from members of Congress on Wednesday: Fix the agency or you won't last long.

"You've got a big challenge on your hands," Republican Rep. Mike Rogers told Neffenger at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee. "I hope that you will instill that understanding in [employees] that if they don't change, they're gone. And if you can't do that, you ought to be gone."

A leaked Homeland Security Department report in June found that TSA passenger screening failed 96 percent of the time, including in the detection of firearms and explosives. Committee Chairman Michael McCaul declared this an "enormous failure" and "completely unacceptable."

"These findings shatter public confidence," he said.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson promptly reassigned the agency's acting administrator, and Neffenger was nominated and confirmed to the leadership post in the following weeks.

"This is a huge concern, and it greatly disturbs me to know we had that failure rate," Neffenger said. The former Coast Guard vice admiral announced that there is a team tasked with reviewing the inspector general's assessment for errors in technology, performance, and procedure. And it was promised that every frontline officer will be retrained by the end of September.

But it won't be easy. On Sunday at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, a man bypassed security without identification and boarded a plane without a ticket. McCaul and other Texas lawmakers requested from Neffenger a formal evaluation of Sunday's events. The administrator said his agency will deliver, adding that "my suspicion is that it's confined to that specific location at Dallas/Fort Worth."

This episode, along with the leaked report and several damning ones preceding it, is sure to dampen already-suffering spirits at the TSA. "Morale starts with a clear understanding of mission," Neffenger said. "They knew it wasn't the most popular job in the country, but they said, 'I want to be the face of security for the traveling public.' That's where morale starts.

"Now where does morale fall after that?" Neffenger continued. "It's a disconnect between what they think they signed up for and what they think the organization is asking them to do. You have to talk about that mission, you have to train that mission, and you have to measure that mission. If I come to work, I want to know that the agency is not only giving me the tools and the training to do it, but backing me up when I have to make decisions."

The hearing wasn't all doom and gloom, however. Several lawmakers expressed their confidence in Neffenger, calling him "a breath of fresh air" and wishing him success. Republican Rep. John Katko also recognized that most TSA employees are doing good work, saying, "you're often trying to find the needle in the haystack" when looking for those underperforming.

Committee members also looked to future issues. McCaul said that terror groups such as the Khorasan and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula are "still very intent on hitting the aviation sector" with nonmetallic IEDs. Neffenger acknowledged the inefficiencies of having separate screening machines for metal and nonmetal devices, but described a prototype that combines them into one.

McCaul and Neffenger both alluded to incentivizing the privatization of technological security components. But Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee expressed opposition to privatizing airports and officers.

Jackson Lee also asked Neffenger about what effect budget sequestration would have on his agency.

"Sequestration is going to be a challenge for every government agency that will be subjected to it. I hope that Congress is able to pass a budget resolution that will eliminate sequestration and allow us to have some certainty going forward," he said.

Neffenger was asked about the number of women in the TSA by Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice.

"Anecdotally speaking, I've been pleased to see what looks to be a very diverse frontline workforce," he said. "What I can commit to you is that it's of critical importance to me across the organization, and not just in the entry level but throughout the organization, to look for opportunities throughout."

"I think that you are a great choice," Rice responded. "You are in a truly thankless job."