Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing On TSA Oversight 20240713

Rep. Correa look forward to working with you. The subcommittee is meeting to look at one year later, the tsa modernization act. The chair is authorized to decode the subcommitteedeclare the subcommittee. I want to thank you, member lesko, and distinguished witnesses for joining us today. Congress enacted the First Comprehensive reauthorization of the tsa known as the tsa modernization act. The act incorporated substantial number of bills and provisions that originated in this committee. It stands as a testament to the committees longstanding bipartisan efforts to connect oversight of tsa. I thank my colleagues, ms. Watson coleman and his chapter mr. Cap no, i should say, for leadership in advancing legislation and congress that will carry on those efforts with Ranking Member lesko in this congress. The tsa modernization act enhances and improves our nations transportation security. Too comprehensive to describe in detail in a few minutes we have, but i would like to highlight a few key points. First, the act established a fiveyear term for the tsa administrator to provide stability to the agencys leadership. Andy, the current chaos leadership vacancies within dhs have undermined those efforts. The administered or has been forced to wear two hats, acting as tsa administrator and dhs deputy secretary. I commend the administered for answering the call to duty, for the role of tsa administrator is a fulltime job, and requires fulltime dedication to ensuring the security of our transportation system. I hope the president will nominate permanent leaders to vacanciesof the dhs and provide tsa with a stable leadership that congress envision when it passed this legislation. In addition to establishing the administrators term, the tsa modernization act pushes tsa to enhance Strategic Planning efforts, and secure public areas of airports and Services Transportation systems and improve the security of air cargo transportation. S implementingtsa the many directives and reporting requirements of the legislation as well as the tsa transparency in updating the committee on its progress. Although tsa made significant progress on implement the act, i am still concerned that tsa has not yet complied with the provisions that present the committees biggest priorities in this act. In providing late this Committee Report and recommendations to reform its personal management system. As you know, the subcommittee recently highlighted issues facing the tsa workforce at its hearing in may. Officersation security serve on the front lines of our transportation system, yet are among the lowest paid workers in the federal government. They are also not afforded some of the basic workplace protections that most other Government Employees enjoy. Improving working conditions for these officers is key to tsas evolution as a professional National Security agency. I look forward to hearing more about the status of this important report. Im going to ask at this point unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the American Federation of Government Employees. Second, tsa is substantially late in providing a strategy that was due in february regarding plans to open curcumin process to a Wider Network of technology companies, including participation of Small Businesses. Tsa relies on a small number of vendors today to provide many of the screening technologies in use at airports nationwide. As you know, Small Businesses in particular face difficulties in competing for tsa awards to limited curcumin cycles, high cost of civic limited procurement is cycles can high cost of implementation. I look for to hearing what steps tsa is taking to ensure these processes are open and fair to all. Finally, tsa is overdue in providing an assessment of potential enhancements to surface transportation security. As you know, mass transit and other service Transportation Systems are particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and it is important that she is a privatized completion of these were tsa prioritized completion of these requirements. Tsa must come into full compliance of the tsa modernization act as soon as possible. Once again, i would like to thank tsa and the gao for being here today, and i look forward to a conversation. Without them i would like to with ofis conversation that, i would like to ranking rep. Lesko for the opening statement. Rep. Lesko thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to welcome as well representative dan bishop from north carolina. This is a great committee. You are going to enjoy it. Very important. I want to thank the witnesses for being here and the tsa officers and other employees that are here from tsa and dhs. Thanks for being here and participating. I am pleased that the subcommittee is meeting to oversee implementation of last years bipartisan reauthorization of the transportation security administration, the tsa modernization act. Terrorists continue to target surface and Aviation Transportation in ways that are constantly evolving. The tsa modernization act recognizes this reality and provides direction to the agency at a critical time. Importantly, this legislation marks the firstever reauthorization of tsas and the since was created tsas the agency was created in 2001. Doing, Congress Fulfill its constitutional role to provide oversight, account ability, and action to the government and the resources appropriated to protect the traveling public. The tsa modernization act took measurable steps to update many offices and programs within tsa and made agency more prepared for current and evolving threats to transportation security. Some of these provisions include the establishment of a fiveyear term for the tsa administrator, authorizing the use of thirdparty explosive detection canines for cargo screening, providing Additional Resources and support to the federal officer program, and outlining new enrollment objectives for tsa precheck. Now, a little more than one year after enactment, it is prudent for our subcommittee to echo the bicameral bipartisanship that facilitated the passage of this landmark legislation, as we examine how effectively tsa has worked to implement the law. I commend the administrator, who is currently serving double duty as the acting director acting deputy secretary of the department of Homeland Security, for working closely with congress on this legislation last year, and for his teams dedication for providing regular briefings to the relevant committees on implementation status. This work, along with congressional oversight, has resulted in 87 of the laws actions for tsa either being successfully completed or on track for successful completion in a timely manner. For many of these provisions, gao serves as the committees watchdog on implementation and its review of tsa programs, offices, and security mitigation efforts. So i am pleased that they are represented here today as well. I look forward to hearing from tsa and gao about the status of outstanding provisions in the law as well as what the agency has accomplished over the last year in fulfilling its statutory requirements. Thank you, and i yield back the balance of my time, mr. Chairman. Rep. Correa thank you, ms. Lesko. Other members of the subcommittee are reminded that Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. I want to welcome the panel of witnesses. Our first witness, ms. Patricia cogswell, is the acting deputy administrator for tsa. Tsa, ms. Joining cogswell held several leadership positions within the u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and dhs, including has acting undersecretary for the angels intelligence and analysis four dhs intelligence and analysis. Our next witness, william russell, works for the government accountable in the Office Enforcement seymour he is responsible for transportation security. Mr. Russell has over 17 years of experience at gao and was previously an assistant director in the contracting and National Security acquisition team. Without objection, the witnesses. Its will be inserted in the record. And now i ask each witness full statements will be inserted in the record. And i might ask each witness to submit their statement beginning with ms. Cogswell. Ms. Cogswell good morning, chairman correa, Ranking Member lesko, nesting wish members of this committee. I want to express our appreciation for the continued support of congress for the productive relationship we have with the subcommittee and as well with the Government Accountability office, as well as the authorities provided by the tsa modernization act of 2018. Implementing the tsa modernization act is a priority for tsa. Im grateful for the invitation to testify about our efforts to execute these authorities. Since its creation following the september 11 attacks, tsas ongoing commitment to ensuring transportation security has enabled public and commerce to continue trumping securely and freely. 18 years later, the reality is that Transportation Systems remain highly valued targets for terrorists and their methods of attack on more decentralized and opportunistic than ever. Aa must meet the challenge of pervasive and constantly evolving threat environment, and both the cyber and physical realms. In meeting this challenge, tsas most important asset is its people. I am very proud of the 62,000 dedicated professionals who make up our workforce and every day demonstrate our core values of integrity, respect, and commitment. Together, the efforts of our workforce secures and facilitate transportation for an average of 80 59 passengers, 2. 56 billion and cargo, and critical transportation infrastructure around the country. Earlier this year, a portion of our workforce went without pay for 35 days during the government shutdown. Despite suffering financial and personal hardship, they demonstrated professionalism and commitment to transportation security measures. We are grateful to congress for continuing to explore ways to prevent this from happening again, and stand ready to help you in achieving this goal. 2018 was a very important year for gsa and its direction. Not only did we release our strategy and administrators intend to highlighting our Strategic Priorities of improving security and safeguarding Transportation Systems, accelerating action, and committing to our people, but the tsa modernization act became law, the first reauthorization of our agency. 2019 has been the year of and limitation. We have conveyed through meetings with this committee, subcommittee staff, and a tsa has implemented more than 60 of the 180 requirements mandated by the act and 72 present of a specific device. Pleated requirements include conducting a Global Security your cargoating and division, establishing a Surface Transportation Security Advisory Committee from initiating a Pilot Program to test the technology for air cargo, executing an automated exit lane technology Pilot Program. Consistent with the tsa modernization act requirements on project and moments and limiting the use of precheck lanes, those with known traveler numbers, we have successfully conducted two pilots ensuring the feasibility and throughput for tsas use of precheck only lanes as well as the future lane experience model, where passengers designated lower risk would receive alternative screening procedures. Risk andg to evaluate assessing Technology Policy and procedures in place to address that this case critical to our mission execution. Recent examples of where we have done so as to with the modernization act include updating the federal air marshal concept of operation through prioritized Mission Deployment strategy focused on highrisk travelers and revised International Risk assessment models, as well as implementing changes to address risks including establishing an aviation severity advisory committee, subcommittee on Insider Threats to assess ways to improve airport worker control. Tsa plans to produce a roadmap for mitigating insider risk in all modes of transportation. Tsa also recognizes the strategic success depends on our workforce. Tsa commissioned a Blueribbon Panel of public and private sector human x with to review capital policy and policy processes and ess our National Advisory council come which is comprised of advisors from our uniformed workforce. Through recommendations from these groups, tsa developed workforce initiatives we are implement such as our twotier performs system and career progression. Chairman correa, Ranking Member lesko, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to test o testify before you today. Tsa is grateful for the authority provided by the monetization act and is committed to implementing them as quickly as possible. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, ms. Cogswell. I would like to recognize mr. Bill russell to summarize his statement in five minutes. Mr. Russell good morning, chairman correa, Ranking Member lesko, members of the subcommittee. Im here to discuss the tsa modernization act of the it included provisions intended to improve aviation security, screening technologies, oversight of passenger screening processes, surface transportation. The act included a number of provisions to review the gao progress. It summarizes pastorate and observations from ongoing work in assessing tsas actions for areas. It shows that tsa has made progress for provisions under the act to improve in a number of areas. First, in terms of International Aviation security, tsa took steps to strength and assessments of foreign airport operators. Since artisan 2017 report, he is a further enhanced airport assessments by capturing better data on vulnerabilities so they could be effectively mitigated. In addition, the act included a provision for gao to improve security for airports to former countries that offer last point of departure flights to the u. S. Tsa may issue new security directives for domestic aircraft carriers and emergency commitments for foreign cameras vulnerabilitys indicate an immediate need for air carriers to implement additional security measures. In our view of the process we found that tsa did not fully defined how to coordinate with industry representatives prior to updating directives, which can lead to some difficulties in and learning needed changes. Implementing needed changes. Tsa had not fully determined whether to counsel on corporate longstanding security directives into air carrier security programs in full accordance with tsa policy. We made several recommendations. O address these issues the modernization act also included provisions related to oversight of passenger screening will. Tsa developed screening will by considering current intelligence and other factors to identify passengers that may require enhanced screen. In our forthcoming report, we got that oversight of this process has improved. Tsa coordinates will reduce through quarterly meetings and notifies an expanded set of tsa stakeholders of rule changes has called for under the act. We also found that while tsa tracks some data related to rule implementation, it is not comprehensive limoges rule effectiveness. We reckon comprehensive we measure rule effectiveness. Reviewing thisy recommendation. In terms of screening technologies, we review the process used by tsa to deploy those technologies to airports, and in our forthcoming report we found that tsa considers risks in its deployment decisions but has not fully documented them. Importantly, we found that after screening technologies have been deployed to airports, tsa does not fully ensure that these technologies continue to meet the detection requirements, even though performance of the technology can degrade over time. We made several recommendations to address these issues, and tsa is currently reviewing them. The act, we review the tsa Public Security efforts. Tsas management of key aspects of the pipeline security can be improved, although coordination of pipeline operators is good. For example, tsa can better evaluate the number of staff and resources to devote the pipeline security and to include the strategic workforce plan that can help it effectively identify skills and competencies such as cybersecurity expertise necessary to carry out responsibilities. Tsa concurred with those recommendations to address the issues and has efforts underway. In conclusion, tsa has taken important steps to improve security in response to the modernization act. Additional actions will be needed going forward, and we will continue to review tsa progress to implement the remaining portions of the act. Chairman correa, Ranking Member lesko, this concludes my prepared remarks. I look forward to your questions. Rep. Correa mr. Russell, thank you very much. You have a minute left. Mr. Russell thank you. Rep. Correa i thank all the witnesses for their testimony and i will remind them that he or she will have five minutes to answer questions from panels. I would like to recognize myself for the first set of questions. The first one is for ms. Cogswell. Congresshe tsa act, codified a fiveyear term for the administrator of tsa. The current administrator, mr. Pekoske, is wearing two hats, one as the administer and the other as acting secretary. Given his dual roles and duties, who is running daytoday operations at tsa . Ms. Cogswell thank you very much for your question. As part of his redesignation and position as the senior official performing the duties of the deputy secretary, he has authorized me to run most of the daytoday operations for tsa. Through that process, i have a series of areas where i consult with him on a regular basis to ensure consistency with his direction and approach. Rep. Correa how do you decide which issues are delegated to him versus you, and how does that affect in limitation of the act . Ms. Cogswell with the way we have been approaching this process it is through longstanding close collaboration. I talked to him multiple times a week. I look for any issues that i believe are particularly sensitive or timeconsuming nature to ensure that there is no instance where he would be caught off guard. Rep. Correa given the concerns we have, and im sure you are doing a great job, do we need a stable leadership at the top of the agency . Should these vacancies the film be filled . Ms. Cogswell it is incredibly important for tsa to have stable leadership over an extended period of time. It is one of the best parts of the act, creating that goal and that mindset. I know the administrator shares that goal. I know he very much is a believer in this role and this and would very much like to be able to see out the remainder of his term. At the same time, we recognize the importance of continuity across the department of Homeland Security. I can think of no one at a qualified to be able to serve in the second position than david pekoske. Rep. Correa as you know, Homeland Security is such a Critical Role in defending our citizens, not only here, but around the world. We want to be of as much help as possible making sure you are able to implement your mission. Turning to another issue, workforce issues, as you know, the subcommittee has focused on issues affecting the workforce. Section 1907 of the act requires the tsa convene a Workforce Group of labor and submit to congress a report containing recommendations to reform tsa Personnel Management systems. What is the status of that report . Ms. Cogswell the working group has formed and has many productive discussions, down to and including we extended the period of time because the discussions were so productive they had additional items they wanted to conclude. The working group concluded its deliberations at the end of august and completed the drafting of the report in september and the report is now in clearance. Rep. Correa when will you expect that . Ms. Cogswell i hope it will be in a matter of weeks. Rep. Correa matter of weeks. Thank you. The statute says that the working group should consider reforms to the tsa Personnel Management system including appeals to the merit system. Rotection board and procedures were those topics considered by the working group . Ms. Cogswell specifically the highly focused around discipline and grievances, yes. Rep. Correa thank you very much. Madam chair [laughter] rep. Correa i would like to turn over i now yields and i would like to recognize Ranking Member of the subcommittee, the gentle person from arizona, ms. Lesko for questions. Rep. Lesko thank you, mr. Chairman, and you also have like a minute left. This is great. Rep. Correa second round. Rep. Lesko ok. I am going to have a question for both of you. In the gaos initial report from the tsa modernization act, the review found that tsa does not ensure screening technologies continue to meet requirements after they have been deployed to the airport. In this review the gao recommended that tsa implement a process to ensure technologies continued to me detection requirements after deployment, and that the tsa is currently reviewing those recommendations. My first question is for mr. Russell. Can you expand on this a little bit more, so we are putting in new technologies like ct scanners, and we are not checking up on him to see if they are still working . Mr. Russell right, what we found is the screening technologies think about the uses of equipment there is initial certification process when they complete the procurement process to run it through all of its paces. It does me all the requirements as expected. Then he gets deployed to airports. Getsen its get it deflated to airports. Most airports have a calibration kit where they check various diagnostics for the equipment working properly. That does not include ensuring that the actual detection of an explosive or other prohibited items is operating at the same level as when it left, lets say, the factory in the certification testing. That is what we are getting at. Rep. Lesko mr. Russell, is that done, detection, would it normally be done by people just trying to sneak things through . Is that what it would be . Youre just saying after hours or whatever you would test how do you test it . Mr. Russell that is where we have the recommendation that tsa should divide a test for how you periodically check the equipment, when it is still operating at high Detection Level when it left the certification process. Ok, thank you. Ms. Cogswell, in relation to that, what can tsa do better . I went to that area where they were testing the different technologies and that type of thing. How would you do a better job at this . How would you test somebody . Would you do surprise checks with undercover people . What are you thinking . Thank you, maam, and we appreciate your visit to our security and we invite your colleagues if they would like to see it as well, we would be happy to have you out. This item is still under review. We are putting together our official response. You highlighted one of the most important pieces, ensuring that the plan that we come up with where we recognize that we already do testing today, as you highlighted. We have processes by which we have covert testing by our systems to look for overall throughput including a move to what we call index testing, where we do an assessment across our system to understand what performance levels are each time. This recommendation goes at a slightly different area, which is the efficacy of the technology over time. Weve got a couple ideas around us, but we want to have a good discussion with gal. To your exact point we cannot bring a live exclusive to a checkpoint on a regular basis, given all the equipment we have, the best way to approach this that meets the needs but is feasible and effective. Rep. Lesko thank you. With the 51 seconds i have left, i have a question that really doesnt deal with the gao report, but it is to do with real id. To be in effect that everybody is supposed to have a real id, travel id, by october 1, 2020, do we have any thoughts . The tsa have any thoughts i worry that people will not get these things in time. I have gotten one and my son has gotten one. But what are we expecting is going to happen . I think every single congress tons ofoing to be calls are going to happen, because they are going to show up at the airport without real id and they cannot fly. Ms. Cogswell at this point the most important thing we can do how to aser awareness many people as possible and how people understand they have more than one option. Idcompliant real license, but if your state is not there, you have other options to receive compliance with documentation. Examples include passports, global entry card, military id. Critical to all of this is to get the word out as far as possible, not only to the entire travel industry, who are working very hard with us, with local Motor Vehicle administrators, to help create that awareness, conduct local enrollment events at airports, other locations, to ease that burden and make it more readily visible to people on how they can quickly update, but most critical, you need to get the word out. I think all of us should help doing that because a lot of people are going to call our offices, i think. You mentioned one of the alternatives is global entry. Is project also an alternative precheck also an alternative . Ms. Cogswell it is important to realize how project works today. We conduct additional verifications looking for that information in someones background. When someone shows up at the front of the queue, what they , drivers presenting license. We are not allowed to accept a noncompliant drivers license after october 1, 2020. Rep. Lesko all right, thank you. Rep. Correa thank you, ms. Lesko. I would like to recognize mr. Cleaver for five minutes of questions. Rep. Cleaver thank you, mr. Chairman. Ms. Cogswell, thank you for being here. Russell, thank you as well. None of this has anything to do beenyour work but i have i must almost every other month it seems whenever we have had either a full hearing or committee here, we have had a new director or new acting director, which cannot possibly be one of the Better Things that is happening to the agency. That is not a question, that is the declaration. Is not onlyncern have the changes at the top, but when we talk about the workforce issues, we still have an unbelievably high turnover rate of tsa employees. Troubling tos as you as it is to me, because i do an average of 1800 air miles a week. Know the guys for about six months, and then there is a whole new group coming in, and it seems like every flight every other time i come to the airport they are training a new group to come in. My analysis is that it is due to the poor pay. Only going to get that changed are we going to get that changed . Ms. Cogswell thank you very much for the question, and i appreciate your efforts and interest in ensuring that you are caring for our workforce. I appreciate it very much and i know they appreciate your engagement at the checkpoint when they go through. It means a lot to them when people care about them if to ask how their day is rather than just rushing along, so thank you for your support. What we have authority to do now and already do is provide a retention incentive. For those airports where retention is significantly above what we would like to see, we are authorized and do pay the differential to them now. That differential ranges from about 5 over the regular salary to 60 over the salary depending on local working conditions and the level of retention we see at that specific location. Authoritiestional with respect to other pay reforms we can take. Within the aviation and transportation security act, there is broad ability for us to set what type of pay system we have. However,ont have come what we dont have, however, his budget to make broadscale changes. So, cleaver ok, because let me interpret what i thought thatrd you say, significant changes can be made, but there is a need to increase the funding for positions before that can be done on a scale that whatever employees that would assure employees that there is a future in this. Ms. Cogswell we are very much working right now on a series of options that we are concerned with in the administration and look forward to working with congress rep. Cleaver all right, thank you, you are very kind. I guess you cant we have to pay them more money, and if we or i need to push for a higher budget, if there is an understanding that everything is being done now to increase the salaries with a budget that is there, then my belief is that we need to do budget increase, whatever we need to do, because i have never understood this the people in whose hands we placed our lives for me, every week, sometimes three or we pay a week them less money. It just doesnt register with me. I cannot figure it out. I want to fix it. Me . Russell, can you help somebody help me. Can you help me . What do you think . What needs to be done . Mr. Russell yeah, so one of the things we have seen in 2018, we did a report that looked at the staffing allocation model to figure out how many tsos need to go to the airports, and what we found is that it is budget constrained. You plug in the amount of funding they have to try to make the numbers work to best support the airports. It could be a Different Number of tsos that are needed if you unconstrain it when you do that model with the current budget. I that helpsf. Rep. Cleaver i think my time has run out. Thank you. Rep. Correa i would like to recognize mr. Bishop for five minutes of questions. Rep. Bishop thank you, mr. Chairman. Ms. Cogswell, tsas canine program is a critical element. The modernization act included several positions in the provisions in getting proving the program. Technical requires and medical standards for canines to screen passengers and property. What is the status of this provision, and can you provide any insight as to what the community can expect to see in terms of standards . Ms. Cogswell thank you very much from and i share your appreciation for our canine detection team. Inry time i go to airports other locations and i see the canines in action, while i love my job, i wish i love my job half as much as those dogs love their job. Every day you see their incredible dedication and their hard work, i love really seeing both the canines and their handlers in action. Question, weecific have formed the working group, and the working group has submitted their recommendations to tsa. We are in the process of reform allies in those into standards and should have those formalizing those into standards and should have is completed in the next month or two. Rep. Bishop the law authorized the screening program. What has the response been from transportation stakeholders . Ms. Cogswell we issued the limiting regulations last december and began training the various teams. We have more than 30 teams certified to date, including a number of thirdparty entities who are able to provide the certification. Overall, we have seen a tremendous interest out of the cargo environments and receive a lot of support from industry for in many deprivation. Rep. Bishop thank you, mr. Chairman. I yelled back. Rep. Correa thank you, mr. Bishop. To organize ms. Barragan for five minutes of questions. Rep. Barragan thank you, mr. Chairman. Ms. Cogswell, you mentioned in your opening remarks progress on Service Transportation security. Act pushesernization tsa to study innovative ways to advance Service Transportation security. Act, section 1991 of the the tsa is required to connect a feasibility assessment of introducing advanced Security Technologies into service Transportation Systems and andeasing vetting identifying verification of the Service Transportation passengers. The assessment was due to congress by april 3, 2019, but has not yet been produced. Can you tell us why that is the case, and whether there has been an impact on the staffing that has impacted this deadline . Ms. Cogswell thank you very much. As was noted in my testimony, we stood up the Service Transportation Security Advisory Committee. We have also done significant outreach efforts across the country to engage with the various stakeholders involved in whererocess to identify some of the highest interests and needs are to ensure that as we develop various ideas for the Feasibility Study and analysis, we were taking on those items of most interest. Rep. Barragan so do we know when the study is going to be ready for congress, the one due in april . Ms. Cogswell you have additional work underway in tsa to finalize that analysis, and then to will need to go into review, so it will be early next year. Rep. Barragan early next year. Gunman shot and killed a tsa officer at Los Angeles International airport, my home airport. Gunman shot and killed five people at Fort Lauderdale international airport. In the aftermath of the shootings, dhs and tsa called for airports to create unified Operation Centers to coordinate Emergency Response and improve your caps improve communications. Tsaection 1987 of the modernization act requires tsa to provide a framework for establishing such centers. This language came from my bill, the strengthening transportation security local cabability act. What is the status of this effort, and what resources has tsa provided to airports . Maybe you can shed light on how many airports have created these unified Operation Centers. Ms. Cogswell we have issued those guidelines. We are staffing fulltime at 12 unified Operation Centers and have another 4 that are staffed intermittently depending on the various exercises or response activities underway at those locations. We are working across the board with airports to understand what model works best with them and what their expectations are for their other stakeholders within their community to promote a positive, unified response. Rep. Barragan what more can tsa and congress do to push airports to establish the centers . Is there anything else we can do to be helpful . Ms. Cogswell continuing to talk about it. You are highlighting the need to not meet each other on a bad day to work problems together is the most important thing. Rep. Barragan ok, i want to take a moment to applaud the work of tsa and the work of the men and women who are on the front lines, i call it, at our airports. Im a Firm Believer that the greatest Terror Threat is going to come from airports and seaports, and tsa officers and the work they do is a critical to the safety of americans and the homeland. I want to applaud their workday and and day out. Day in and day out. My colleague touched upon the issue of pay and salaries for the i frankly cannot understand why we paid the men and women on the front line such a low amount of money. They are responsible for our security. I am greatly concerned about what we can do to increase morale, increase retention, and make sure that they have representation to be in a strong position the strongest position possible. The tsa modernization act directed your agency to create a working group to work with labor representatives and produce a report outlining recommendations. I hope tsa can perform its Personnel Management system. The way that tsa is late in providing this report to congress, so i hope you can provide clarity on it. When can we expect this report, and can you provide recommendations from the working group . Ms. Cogswell the working group had a very productive discussion and agreed on a joint recommendations. The work is in the report is in the final administration clearance and we hope to have a clear in the next few weeks. Rep. Barragan thank you, i yelled back. Yield back. Ms. Watson coleman, you are recognized for questions. Rep. Watson coleman ms. Cogswell, how are you today . Good. Ms. Barragan just ask you about the working groups. To the working groups consist of the Union Members as well . When was it constituted . Ms. Cogswell it started in the spring and went after the shutdown and went through the full meeting through the end of august. So thetson coleman report you are going to report on, is that consensus between the union and the agency with regard to these tsrs . Tsos . Ms. Cogswell yes. Rep. Watson coleman we are really excited to see that. The shortterm Deployment Force when there is a seasonal or is set to ensure that there is adequate screening resources. It was codified in section 1988 ,f the tsa modernization act actually based on my bill, the tsa national Deployment Force act. The ndf was deployed last year to airports like seattle and denver, where tsa did not meet its hiring goals, and airports in hawaii, where tsa has a difficult time attracting candidates. What steps are you taking to higher permanent tsos at those particular challenging airports . Ms. Cogswell thank you very much for the authorization of the national Deployment Force. They have provided critical assets not only for the issues you have identified, but in response to a wide range of various needs across tsa and the critically important aspect for us. Rep Watson Coleman i agree with you 100 . I just want to know what were doing about trying to recruit people to work at those airports. Ms. Cogswell absolutely. We have increased retention incentives of those locations and authorized over normal allocation hirings so they can ensure consistency over time with the full complement of staff needed, as well as authorizing some additional etc. , so local travel, there can be more load balancing between hub and airports in those areas. Rep. Watson coleman to the report that is going to come out is going to address these issues that youareas particularly like to live at but dont necessarily want to work there under the current conditions, is that so . Workdont affect how you these challenging airports, hiring retention . Ms. Cogswell the workgroup specifically looked at discipline procedures as well as grievance procedures, focusing on those elements directly. Rep. Watson coleman did not look at hiring and retention . Ms. Cogswell it did not. Rep. Watson coleman was there an intention to look at the issue of retention in particular . Ms. Cogswell that was not an area we signed them up for this round. We have a number of other areas rep. Watson coleman im asking, does the bill, the law include the discussion with the workgroup around those areas . Ms. Cogswell i do not remember at this time. Rep. Watson coleman i think we were concerned about the recruitment and retention and the discipline, and any other sort of employee procedures. I would appreciate feedback on that, if you dont mind. I want to ask you about to mying that has come attention regarding the federal air marshals. There was an article in september of this year that sort of spoke to what is considered a crisis and chaos in the federal air marshal area. Alleged inability to respond in such a way that keeps these air marshals from burning out. You have had a series of suicides. Allegations several sorry. [laughter] rep. Watson coleman allegations of Mental Health issues. With lot of it has to do the deprivation of sleep and things of that nature. Just wondering, do you have something you are doing internally that is addressing these issues in particular that you could highlight for us now and perhaps discuss later . Ms. Cogswell absolutely, and i look forward to discussing it more in depth. As a highlight, i would note that article did not bring forward new data. It was looking at prior information. The important piece to note is that we have a number of items under way. First is where were looking at what the right mix and balance is of flying versus onground time. That can mean your training time, it can mean groundbased assignment, where you perform some other security functions for example, at the airports. It also looks at how we best provide services to air marshals so they have to help they need should they needed. And other members of the workforce to engage with their colleagues. Rep. Watson coleman thank you. Mr. Chairman, it is an issue i would like for us to look at more indepth way. Rep. Correa so noted, and we will go in that direction. Rep. Watson coleman i yield ba ck. Rep. Correa i would like to recognize the gentle person from new york, mr. Katko, for five minutes of questions. Rep. Katko thank you, mr. Chairman. Appreciate the opportunity. Thank you for being here. As part of the tsa modernization act, there was multiple Insider Threat provisions contained in it. I want to get an update. I know we are past the deadline for that, the opportunity to explain why we have not received the information you. You just tell me where we are at in the process . Tell me briefly why you are not yet met the deadline included in the bill. Ms. Cogswell thank you very much. The most important parts or all of those Insider Threat elements is to ensure close detailed collaboration with the various stakeholders involved. As you well know, we dont actually implement these by ourselves in most instances. We are asking the airports to implement when we issue any regulatory action. What we want to do is ensure that the recommendations the identified as much as possible or done through a jointly collaborative process, and that the Feasibility Analysis including the Economic Analysis that goes with it is fully informed by what our stakeholders see and believe would be the impact. Rep. Katko the deadline, i believe, is october. Do you have a projected deadline for when these provisions will be accounted for and reported back to us . Ms. Cogswell probably the largest piece, the Feasibility Study, we had to do a survey of more than 310 airports responding to that, which was wonderful input ports that analysis. That one is wrapping up in terms of its process and is about to go into interAgency Clearance. I hope you receive it early in the new year if not before then. As to a number of other provisions, we have gone through an effort to receive direct input from the aviation Security Advisory Committee and are working to put together an overall roadmap of Insider Threats. Rep. Katko ok, sort of didnt answer my question. What do you expect to have all this done . Ms. Cogswell the actual report for all the recommendations we look to have to you early january. Rep. Katko ok. I appreciate that. I am concerned that when there is a provision that you didnt get in a timely manner, what i appreciate the diligence with which you are doing it for the if it goes past january, we might be a little more upset than we are right now, just be forewarned. Precheck is precheck bill, passed into law, what is the status of the laws requirement to preserve the integrity of the project lanes, establishing precheck lanes, establishing what the administrator said was the flex lanes for other passengers determined to be low risk . Ms. Cogswell as you know, we conducted pilots this year for both models. Coming up on that, we determined that both models are feasible and have demonstrated throughputs we can manage. What we then needed to do was twofold. One, determine all of those airports were based on current slow projected volume we can implement well in advance, and which locations doing a pure precheck lane would not allow us to manage the overall throughput for that airport. At this point in time we believe we are ready to start executing and started executing cutting over for all of those airports where we believe we can do so now. We believe in the end it will be 75 of the total of 440 airports we will be able to implement. Rep. Katko the current status of the precheck lane, are there nonprecheck members going through the late . Ms. Cogswell there is, but we are starting to cut over now. Rep. Katko when you say cut over, what do you mean . Ms. Cogswell we started this week. Rep. Katko when you say cut over, what do you mean by that . Ms. Cogswell we have rulesbased inclusion used in that process. Rep. Katko when you expect to be 100 precheck only in project landsprecheck lanes . That is what we are interested in. Ms. Cogswell we are very mindful of the deadline and the interest to achieve that deadline. We recognize the importance of providing a consistent expense again. What we want to also not do is totally disrupt an airport by doing so in a way that does not make sense. Critical to this discussed being able to identify additional lowrisk populations that would be eligible for some kind of modified screening that is not as streamlined as prechecks. That is taking us a bit longer than i think any of us had hoped for, but critically important for us to get right. We will continue to provide you updates. Rep. Katko ok, but i want to forewarn you all that that is not an optional date to be in compliance. I dont want to have to have another hearing back your to say that you do not comply with that, either. It is important from a security standpoint that only people in precheck, which is a higher level of repetitive screening of those candidates, should be in precheck. Also, people pay for it, and it is a service they expect to have and enjoy. It is not an optional deadline, so i want to forewarn tsa that if the deadline is not met, there will be a lot of problems from this committee. Ms. Cogswell understood. Rep. Katko i yield back. Rep. Correa thank you, mr. Katko. I concur on the specific point. That should not be an option for i would like to ask unanimous consent from this committee to ms. Jackson lee join us and to have ms. Jackson lee asked five minutes of questions. Without objection. Lee thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Let me acknowledge the chairman and the Ranking Member for their courtesy and the members of the committee, and with a little bit this committee i chaired some years ago, i want to first of all express my appreciation to all of the tsos that work across the nation and to reiterate what i have done over and over again since 9 11, the American People would be absolutely shocked and amazed of the terrorist threats and danger to the aviation im concerned several things. Let me start with every time we mention the employment landscape or the labor numbers, it looks like tsa says all is well, but you would find that, not even an ordinary cross the business, holidays or otherwise, there are long lines and people are not in place, shifts are changing. What are you doing to marginalize from a perspective of a free flow of seamless system that has enough tsos in place, whether enough that the machine or elsewhere to provide that extra level of comfort regarding the security mechanism that they are responsible for. . Tsa has an extensive model, where we receive information from the Aviation Community apart protected volumes, number of tickets sold, win new flights when new flights will be on model not only airport by airport but down to checkpoint by checkpoint, based on projected volumes. We have highlighted correctly there are instances where those models do not work. Number one is anytime theres a thunderstorm that comes up the east coast. But in a series of other instances, we look for how best to meet the need. I will say that the most important part from our perspective is ensuring that we are working to retain our timelines within our established parameters, which is 30 minutes for standard and 10 minutes for precheck. Does that mean, you have every tso you need to make the system work across the United States at this time . There are number of instances and we are working closely with those airports where airline volume continues to increase at a very hefty rate. Which is fantastic for our economy. Unfortunately, a number of these airports were not actually built to accommodate that level of the existing lane structure. In these instances, we worked very closely with the airports to understand how best we can open up the new lane, move shops or others to make additional space, event staff those lanes as they become available. We talk with them about what their longer term planes are for redevelopment to service those additional volumes. I want to make the same point and follow up on the deadline, regarding the certified and the identification and i would hope that we could get an update as we move towards the deadline. I just fear a great deal of confusion and also a percent inability to have that id. Im just ask a question because i have one more question. Are you doing a lastminute out reach level that you can actually hear it and pierce it, that means it has been all levels of social media, including the oldfashioned television. Ive seen and heard nothing, absolutely nothing. Yes we are working closely across the board with the travel industry talking about how we can changeup somebody communications we have as passengers buying tickets and as people are flying officers are advising you will do an Outreach Campaign yourself . You are budgeted to do that. Theyre doing a full transit around enriched already. Let me ask you about the travel program, i want to raise the name with the new black panther party. I spent the time dealing with the crisis of the tsa emotion travels and from my perspective and her background you oppose no she opposes no threat. What is her route of cutting off of it shows up on her ticket and using her as an example. What is the process when i first came here ted kennedy was on the list. How do you extract yourself from being off the list . As they do their job it is very important to do their job. Can you have them particularly sensitive to the approach to the language to how you move the person around . They are not a threat right there because they dont have any weapons. They are in the security area. What is the process . Theres a couple of pieces i would highlight. First and foremost is the ability to go through whats called the dhs trip. Anyone whos had an issue all while traveling may apply through dhs trip. The vast majority of individuals who are applying arent actually on a watchlist but might have a sounds like name. Name,r spelling, similar similar date of birth. Whats easy for those individuals is able to distinguish them after they have information and give them a redress number. The airline will then know that person is not a match. I will make sure we find a way. I think it should be publicly made. This is something that happened in the early stages of tsa when we werearold boy trying to get him off the watchlist. Ted kennedy, john lewis, others were on the list. We havent heard as much but we still have some of them. Tso was doingand their job. I want to make sure there is a who are notthose threats and are treated as such. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. I think she is absolutely right. Were you on the list as well . I left out my pastor, yes you are. Has ane because he important and unique name. To start a second round of questions, if i may. And i will start with myself, i recognize myself for five minutes. I want to follow up with mr. Clyburns comments about tsa personnel. They still have a lot of folks working parttime, correct . If i were to extrapolate from my discussion some of your, work ers, you do have a lot of turnover. If they are parttime, they are there until they they are part time, that is the crux of the issue this is a budgetary challenge that we have . As part of the 2020 issue, we are decreasing the number of parttime individuals authorized. There are specific locations where it makes a lot of sense. Individuals who retired from other jobs who dont want to work a full schedule. It worked very well for them, especially in those locations, depending on the ground a workforce with those parttimers preferred to be parttime . Those part timers i highlighted would prefer to be daying in parttime. Others who would prefer fulltime. I imagine is a lot of people that are not retired that one some stability. My next question is in terms of budget, we have the tax that we pay on tickets. That is supposed to go to airport security. Yes. Airport security . All but the amount set aside under the budget control act to go to deficit reduction. It does not go to airport security. We tax our passengers for security and that money does not go to security. It goes to debt, budget reduction. Thank you. Go on to Small Business participation. This committee is focused on small budget participation especially in screening technologies. It requires tsa to produce a strategy to outline how you are supposed to get there. What is the status of this strategy . Why are we eight months late on the specific area . The strategy is within administration and our Agency Clearance, we hope to have it out within the next few weeks. I will say, this is an area that i do feel quite proud and might take a few minutes talking about it. Please do. It seeks to incentivize and build out. We agree it is critically important to look for new in entrance in this space. That we not solely see just a consolidation of the market but that we also look for the best ideas, even for, and frankly, more importantly from individuals out maybe never even thought of themselves as working in the security community. Just as a couple of examples, id like to highlight. Last year, we ran a special exercise through dhs science and technology with a number of entities out in the wider world, including educational institutions to look at new algorithms for our machines, the on body screening system. Incredibly promising work, all from individuals that had not previously provided this kind of service to tsa before. We have those algorithms in the lab, now depending on the result we would deploy them out. Increasing our detection and reducing false positives we see in that arena. Other examples. At the 2. 1 billion that he has a spent last year in acquisitions, 450 million was actually two Small Business, exceeding our target for last year. Almost one quarter of our entire work. Ct machines, do you see Small Business is engaging in this area . One of the vendors that was directly involved and is currently undergoing trials is in fact a Small Business. What percentage of your non Service Contracts or set aside for Small Businesses . At this time, we do not have any set aside, but we have indicated in the current procurement that we will choose to have a set aside. Do you have any set aside for veterans . I dont have an answer. If i may highlight one other area if it is acceptable . Please do. In the past year we do a broad announcement that seeks different angles, different work against key problem areas. Last year we received 85 submissions from 104 different vendors. Responded to a tsa solicitation. 72 never contacted the tsa. Ones awarded, we selected 12 for demonstration, seven are Small Businesses. I want to encourage you to continue to look for Small Businesses, thats where the innovation would come from. Im sure your Traditional Companies are thinking fine but you want to think outofthebox. You have to go somewhere you have never gone before. Thank you. Section 1906 of the lot requires tsa to complete an agencywide produceo spending reductions, and administered the savings that may be streamlining. This provision also asked tsa to eliminate the put of programs programs ande reduce the number of Senior Executive personnel by as much 20 . One of my questions would be if we can reduce these duplicative programs and reduce the number of Senior Executive personnel, could we then move the money over to the concern about tso officers pay . On august 1. As due i guess we dont have the report yet. When do you think we will have the report . Any of theize savings and move it over for tso pay increases . We have completed the analysis including implementing significant realignments across the agency. We also have projected in some additional cost savings for headquarters, associated with our move going into next year of about 11 over headquarters functions. The sole intent of reallocating those resources to the field. The report itself is within inter Agency Clearance and we hope to get it to you within the coming weeks. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. And id like to recognize mr. Cleaver for five minutes of questions. Thank you. When i was having difficulties getting to the airport, which is because of my last name, but for an American Airlines procedure, im not sure that i would still be on there. Thats not what i want to talk about. I want to talk about money. This is not your fault, as i said, you are the that ive raised this issue to because of my concern. How long are you going to be here . Job . E leave not intending to anytime soon. I was selected for the job and ive been here about 18 months. I talked to one person and they say we have to do something. Next month we have a new director, and acting director. Timet want to waste your and my time that you wont be around long enough to address. What is the starting salary for tso . Base you look at the salary without the locality pay included it is about 27,000. , most added locality pay locations is about 33,000. Gs4 probably wont get shot at. Designatede position by opm for unarmed security guard. It is a comparator. The very strong interest in recognizing the incredible professionalism of our workforce, the increasing optimizations that they have to know. We have to get this fixed. Hopefully we will get a budget and a spending bill because a couple things i want to get into. We need to stop paying these people putting their lives on like we are. Kansas City International airport is one of only two airports in the country where we dont have the government tsa workers. Theres nobody around long. Nough San Francisco is the other airport. I dont want ours to stay like it is. Two things i need your help on. One is the money. The other is the private contractor who is running the tsa airport in kansas city. Im not mad at him or her. It started out with the facial recognition. Some kind of a test pilot and the pilot has been 9 11. G since i needed to be changed, can you change it by the time we come back next week . Partnershipning program is established in law and sets up parameters for how we put out the parameters and requirements for how it operates. How we identify which vendors will meet everybody else is on the federal program. We have 24. To those airports too. Talking about the largest city in the state of missouri. The largest city in the lower midwest. We are still running on a program that is supposed to be temporary. They are the ones who determine whether or not the Airport Authority says they want to pursue the private entity. We dont have an Airport Authority. I used to be the mayor. We will have to come and talk to you more specifically about your airport. Ill try to work with you after. I like to recognize miss jackson lee for five minutes of questioning. I did say how grateful i am for your kindness into the committee. To congressman Emanuel Cleaver please count me as joining in enthusiastically. When this Program Began i was in opposition to it. Not any negative opposition to contractors. There should be a consistent managing structure and as , it was put into law , individuals who i think with privatization and many of us to oppose it that means the airport cannot opt out except for the contract of whether runs out or not. The other thing i want to make sure that there were no longer thinking about not having tsos at small airports. That was proposed in some mindless concept that we wont put them at the small airports. We will wait until someone gets on the plane and goes to the big airport. I want to get that answered. The table longer on regarding small airports not having tso . Correct. Make the point about the salaries of tsos. Questions he mentioned there that would like them to expand his the monitors it modernization of technology. Tsa has to keep up with the new type of technology to detect more significant sophisticated ways of terrorist behavior. Certainly. We seen the computer topography is thecheckpoint, that latest technology thats piloted but certainly we have thinking adversaries with these threats and when we last looked at the Coverage Program there were some challenges. The key there for tsas once you know the vulnerabilities whether it is technology, processes, things they could be doing better to find a Mitigation Solution and implement those. Recommendations tsa is working on. Could i yield to the deputy . We are moving on those recommendations. I highlighted our Innovation Task force. We are able to rapidly bring on board potential solutions that have gone through an initial review with the ability to do demonstration, determine the effectiveness well before it is ready for full market. Our lets us expedite requirements quite frankly and help understand the feasibility of a specific location. Does that mean holistically that you are trying to make slowness correct the in technology or to expand technology and train tsos on that new technology . Absolutely to all three of those. I complement the gentleman raising theon contracting issue. My concern would be that these that accepted that, i want the salaries to be comparable and under the right environment will increase salaries. What you need from us and what is the environment needed to increase the salaries of the tsos . Theust to highlight difference between the tsos and spp airports. We require they pay the same amount that we do. If we are able to identify additional funds, they would be required to match. What we like in the near term is the ability to have some a conversations with you about robust models. What are the options within the account we received for the coming years to determine the best path forward. I cant say how extremely valuable we think it is that you are asking me questions and expressing this interest. Value for the workforce morale as well as the thesest and importance officers have on a daily basis. We opened the academy in georgia couple years back. I want to know how that is working, the whole idea are you all still encouraging . I understand you send tsos to that school after they have been on staff for a while. You change the format. Is that working . We changed our model. We are bringing people on board and immediately sending them to multi week training. In rapid order they were understanding what life was like working at a checkpoint and deciding perhaps it was not the best fit. The revenue model we are able to train them on certain functions that dont require the full training. Let them experience the environment, let them see how loud it is and what does like to interact with several thousand people. Then go through the training. We are seeing a decrease in the number of people leaving the trial after training. Professional development is very important . Critically important. We need to keep funding it . Absolutely. Witnessesto thank the for your very fair, important, and valuable testimony. I want to thank the members for the questions. Some of the questions today were very important to try to reduce turnover, implementation of technology, precheck, and of course the issue of how do you get off the lists once youre on them . Members of the committee if you have any additional questions for the witnesses, we ask that you respond expeditiously in writing. The Committee Records shall be kept open for 10 days. , theg no further business subcommittee stands adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the Unemployment Rate increased last month despite employers adding 128,000 jobs. Several thousand striking workers counted as unemployed. The jobless rate is up from 3. 5 to 3. 6 . Hourly wages are up from last year. Willmithsonian institute host later today. He was previously the director ofthe National Museum africanamerican culture in washington, d. C. We will have live coverage on cspan. Cspans campaign 2020 continues live today with president ial candidates in iowa and mississippi. Eastern,at 7 30 p. M. The democratic president ial contenders speak in des moines. Featured speakers include michael bennet, joe biden, cory booker, steve bullock, pete tigieg, hooley and castro ,ulian castro, Amy Klobuchar beto orourke, bernie sanders, tom steyer, elizabeth warren, and andrew yang. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan two, President Trump holds a Campaign Rally in mississippi. Watch cspans campaign 2020 coverage, live today at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. And at 8 00 on cspan two. Former cia director john brennan joined Michael Burrell and Andrew Mccabe to talk about election security. They talked about efforts by russia and how best to protect the 2020 election. At themason hosted National Press club. Thank you very much. This is a great turnout. Im really flattered. If there was Something Else important in washington d. C. Going on tonight, i think you know what im talking about. Thank you for coming. Im mark loiselle, at George Mason University and we author the intelligence policy and National Security that has put on a number of these wonderful programs in the last few years. I would very at much forward to this event. For those of you who dont know George Mason University has a short School Policy government that provides academic programs in fairfax and arlington , virginia and we have a number of her fashion of degree programs primarily taught in arlington and Public Policy Public Administration interNational Security studies which has been ranked number two by u. S. News and world report nationally that we are very proud of and i think the Michael Hayden sent her center for Security Policy studies a number of other entities at the school are a very important component of the recognition we have received for being leaders in the field of security studies. Again thank you for being here. I look forward to a great event that i want to acknowledge the presence of the provost of our university, david willits. [applause] several members of our board of trustees also are here tonight. Thanks to them for attending this event as well. Most importantly i want to acknowledge the presence of the founder of the Michael Hayden center and his wife janine. General Michael Hayden and janine hayden. [applause] general hayden, and we are really proud to have you in the schar school. Michael has been teaching for us for the past 10 years and we look forward to him coming back to the classroom and i think he is a few words that he would like to say. Thank you again for coming. I think this is going to be a really interesting debut. Im looking forward to it. Thank you again. Thank you. [applause] all right so i just want to