Senators call for watchdog to investigate TSA’s use of facial recognition

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is asking the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog to investigate the Transportation Security Administration’s use of facial recognition technology over concerns about the agency’s collection of biometric data. 

In a Wednesday letter to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, 12 senators — seven Democrats and five Republicans — called for a thorough review of how TSA uses facial recognition to verify travelers’ identities “from both an authorities and privacy perspective.”

“This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy,” the senators wrote.

TSA has already deployed facial recognition technology at more than 80 airports that compares real-time photos of travelers with their government-issued identifications. The agency plans to expand the use of facial biometrics to more than 400 airports in the coming years, although some lawmakers and privacy rights groups have expressed alarm about the widespread rollout of the technology. 

TSA and DHS officials told Nextgov/FCW earlier this year that the agency has signage around the airport alerting travelers to the use of facial recognition and disclosing their right to opt out of the screenings if they choose to do so. The officials also stressed that travelers’ personal information is not stored by the screening machines, except in “limited testing environments.” 

The lawmakers’ letter said that, although facial recognition screenings are optional for travelers, the transportation security officers are “inconsistently trained on how to respond to passengers who request to opt out and have told passengers they will face delays for opting out.”

If facial biometrics are rolled out to every U.S. airport, the lawmakers also warned that the program “could become one of the largest federal surveillance databases overnight without authorization from Congress.”

The letter asked the DHS IG to specifically investigate the effectiveness of TSA’s facial recognition technology, including its “collection and storage of travelers’ biometric data and determine when and whether TSA deletes this information following passenger verification.”

TSA Administrator David Pekoske said during a House hearing in May that it could take the agency approximately 25 years to fully deploy the facial recognition technology if lawmakers did not end the diversion of 9/11 security fees away from the agency. 

If the agency receives its full allocated funding, Pekoske said the rollout of the new tools could be completed by the end of this decade, since TSA already “has the vendors and processes in place” to fully deploy the facial recognition technology.

Several of the letters’ signatories — including Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., John Kennedy, R-La., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. — previously proposed a measure in May that would have paused TSA’s rollout of facial recognition technology at additional airports until Congress had a chance to review the initiative. 

The lawmakers were hoping to attach their amendment to legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, although their provision was ultimately stripped from the final package.