Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On TSA Oversight 20240713

The tsa precheck. This is an hour and 25 minutes. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. The subcommittee on transportation and Maritime Security will come to order. I would like to start by welcoming mr. Dan bishop of North Carolina to the committee. Welcome, sir. Delighted to be here. I look forward to working with you, sir. The subcommittee is working today to receive testimony on one year later, the implementation of the tsa modernization act and without objection, the chair is authorized to declare the subcommittee at recess at any point. I want to thank you Ranking Member lesko and other members for joining us today. One year ago 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 conduct oversight of tsa. I thank my colleagues ms. Watson coleman and mr. Catsko in advancing the legislation in the last congress that i am happy to carry on with Ranking Member lesko in this congress. The tsa modernization act enhances the nations transportation security, and the act is too comprehensive to describe in a few minutes that we v 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, and sadly, the current chaos and vacancies within the dhf have undermined the efforts. Administrator pushkey has been forced to wear two hats. I commend the administrator for answering the call to duty, but the role of the tsa administrator is a fulltime job that requires full time dedication to ensuring the security of our Transportation System. I hope that the president will nominate permanent leaders to fill many of the dhs vacancies and thus provide the tsa with a stable leadership that congress envisioned when it passed this legislation. In addition to establishing the administrators term, the tsa modernization act first pushes tsa to enhance the Strategic Planning efforts and secures the public areas of airport and surface Transportation Systems and improving the security of air cargo transportation. And we appreciate tsas reporting on the directives and the reporting to the legislation as far as the transparency and updating the committee on the progress. Although tsa has made significant progress on imt pleming the act, i am still concerned that tsa has not yet complied with the provisions that present some of the committees biggest priorities in the act. First, tsa is late is providing this committee with a report on recommendations to reform the Personnel Management system, and as you know the subcommittee recently highlighted the issues facing the tsa workforce in the hearing in may. Transportation Security Officers serve on the front lines and securing our nations Transportation System and yet among the lowest paid workers in 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 the tsas evolution as a professional National Security agency, and i look forward to hearing more about this status of the important report. I will ask for 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 procurement process to a Wider Network of Technology Companies including participation of Small Businesses. Tsa relies on the 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 ts, awara awards procurement policies and evaluation processes. I am looking forward to finding out what processes are open and fair to all. And finally tsa is overdue for providing a substantial enhan enhancement to transportation security. As you know mass transit and other service Transportation Systems are particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks and it is important for tsa to complete these tasks. Tsa must work to come into full compliance with the requirements of the tsa modernization act as soon as possible. Once again, id like to thank tsa and the gao for being here today and i look forward to wou conversation. With that, i would like to turn the conversation over to the Ranking Member lesko for the opening statement. Ms. Lesko. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to welcome as well representative dan bishop from North Carolina. Welcome. This is great committee. And you are going enjoy it. Very important. And i wanted to thank the witnesses for being here and the tsa officers and other employees who are here from tsa and dhs, and thank you for being here and participating. I am pleased that this subcommittee is meeting today to oversee implementation of last years bipartisan reauthorization of the transportation security administration, and the tsa modernization act, and terrorists of course continue to target both surface, and Aviation Transportation in the ways that are constantly evolving, and the tsa modernization act is going to recognize this reality and provide the communication with the agency. And this is marking the first ever reauthorization of the tsa since the agency was created in 2001 following the terrorist attacks in 2011. And since doing, congress provided its oversight with direction and accountability to the federal government and the resources appropriated to protect the traveling public. The tsa modernization act took measurable steps to update the offices and programs within tsa and make the agency more prepared for the current and the evolving threats to transportation security. Some of these provisions included the establishment of a fiveyear term for the tsa administrator, authorizing the use of thirdparty explosive detection for canines for passenger and cargo screening and providing Additional Resources is and information to the flight deck programs and rolling out new objectives for the tsa precheck. Now a little more than a year after ten actment, it is prudent for the subcommittee to have the bicameral and bipartisanship that passed this landmark legislation as we examine how effectively tsa has been working to implement the law. I commend administrator pikoski who is serving doubly as the ac deputy secretary of the department of Homeland Security, for working closely wi lly with congress on this legislation last year and to his teams dedication to providing updates on implementation status. This work, along with congressional oversight, has resulted in 87 of the laws required actions for tsa being either successfully completed or on track for successful completion in a timely manner. For many of these provisions, g arc o serves as the committees watchdog on implementation and its review of tsa programs, office 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 today on the status of outstand progress visions 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. Thank you. Other members of the subcommittee are reminded that under the Committee Rules Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. I want to welcome the panel of witnesses. Our first witness, miss patricia cogswell, is the acting de inin administrator for tsa. Prior to joining tsa, she held several leadership positions within the u. S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement and dhs including as acting undersecretary for dhs intelligence and analysis. Our next witness, mr. William roswell, is a director at the gaos Homeland Security and justice team where he is responsible for leading gaos work on aviation and surface transportation security. Mr. Russell has over 17 years of experience at gao and was previously assistant director in gaos contracting and National Security acquisitions team. Without objection, the witnesses the full statements will be inserted in the record. Now i ask each witness to summarize their statements for five minutes beginning with miss cogswell. Welcome, maam. Good morning, distinguished members of this committee. On behalf of tsas employees i want to express our appreciation for the continued support of congress, the productive relationship we have with this subcommittee and as well as the Government Accountability office as well as the authorities provided by the act of 2018. Implementing the modernization act is a priority for tsa. I am grateful for the invitation to testify about our heefforts. Since its creation following the september 11th attack, our ongoing commitment to ensuring transportation security has enabled public and commerce to continue traveling securely and freely. 18 years later the reality is the Transportation Systems remain highly valued targets for terrorists and their methods of attack are more decentralized and opportunistic than ever. We must face a constantly evolving threat environment in the cyber and physical realms. Our most important asset is our people. I am very proud of the 63,000 dedicated professionals who make up our work forbeforce and prer values of commitment. We secure and facilitate transportation for an average of 85 million passengers, 2. 56 billion in cargo, and critical transportation infrastructure around the country. Earlier this year, a significant portion of our workforce went without pay for 35 days during the partial government shutdown. Despite financial and personal hardships, they showed commitment to their mission. We are grateful to congress to explore ways to prevent this from happening again and we stand ready to help you. 2018 was an important year for tsa and its direction. Not only did we release our strategy and administrators intent, highlighting our Strategic Priorities and improving security and safe guarding the Transportation System, accelerating action and committing to our people, but the tsa modernization act became law, the first rethundershowers of our agency. 2019 has been the year of implementation. We have conveyed through eight progress meetings with this subcommittees staff anded a e as of today tsa has implemented more than 60 of the 180 requirements man daytodayed by the act and 72 of those with deadlines. Conducting a global Aviation Security review, creating an air cargo division, establishing a surface transportation security Advisory Committee, niche yafting a Pilot Program to test Ct Technology for air cargo, executing an automated exit lane technology Pilot Program in phoenix airport. Additionally, consistent with the tsa modernization act, requirements to grow precheck enrollment and limit precheck lanes to those with known traveler numbers we successfully conducted two pilots, both ensuring the feasibility and throughput for tsa use of precheck only lanes as well as the future lane experience model, where nonprecheck e passengers designated as lower risk would receive alternative screening procedures. Continuing to evaluate risk and assessing Technology Policy and procedures in place, to address that risk is critical to our mission execution. Recent examples of where we have done so consistent with the modernization act include updating the federal air marshal concept of operation through prioritized Mission Deployment strategy focused on highrisk travelered and revised Risk Assessment models as well as implementing changes to assess insider risk including setting a subcommittee on ways to improve airport controls. Tsa plans to produce a roadmap for mitigating insider risk in all modes of transportation. Tsa also recognizes our strategic success depends on our workforce. Tsa commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel of public and private sector Human Capital experts to review tsas Human Capital policy and policy processes and reestablished our National Advisory council, comprised of advisers from our uniformed workforce. Through recommendations from these groups and others tsa developed a number of workforce initiatives we are implementing such as our twotier performance system, our model officer Recognition Program and our career procession. Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today. Tsa is grateful for the authorities provided through the mod ern saiization act. Id like to recognize mr. Bill russell to sum rise his statement in five minutes. Sir . Good morning, members of the subcommittee. Im pleased to be here today to discuss tsa progress to implement the tsa modernization act. It included provisions to improve Aviation Security, screening technologies, oversight of passenger screening processes and surface transportation. The act also included a number of provisions for gao to review tsas progress. This statement summarizes past work and observations from some of our ongoing work in assessing tsas actionings for selected areas. Overall, this body of gao work shows that tsa has made progress consistent with provisions under the act but can improve in a number of areas. First, in terms of international Aviation Security, tsa took steps to strengthen assessments of foreign airport operators. For example, since our december 2017 report tsa further enhanced its foreign airport assessments by capturing better data on vulnerabilities so they can be mitigated. In addition, the act included a provision for gao to review security directive ts for airports in Foreign Countries that offer departure points to the u. S. Tsa may issue new directives for domestic air care yas and emergency amendments for foreign carriers if vulnerabilities indicate an need need for air carriers to implement additional security measures. In our review of this process, we found that tsa did not fully define how to coordinate with industry representatives prior to updating directives, which can lead to some difficulties in implementing needed changes. Tsa had also not yet fully determined whether to cancel or incorporate many longstanding security directives into air carrier security programs in full accordance with tsa policy. Weve made several recommendations to address these issues and tsa concurred with them. The modernization act included provisions related to oversight of passenger screening rules. Tsa developed screening rules by considering passenger who is may rerequire enhanced screening. We found that oversight of this process has improved. Tsa cord nates rule reviews and notifies an expanded set of dhs and tsa stakeholders of rule changes as called for under the act. We also found that while tsa tracked some data related to rule implementation, it does not comprehensively measure rule effectiveness. We recommended that tsa explore Additional Data sources for better measuring their effectiveness of these rules. Tsa is currently reviewing this 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. We foumd after screening technologies have been deployed to airports, tsa does not fully ensure these technologies continue to meet detection requirements even though performance of that technology can degrade over time. We made several recommendations to address these issues and tsa is reviewing them. Per the act, we also reviewed tsa pipeline security efforts. We found that tsas management of key aspects of this pipeline security can be improved although coordination with pipeline operators is good. For example, tsa needs to better evaluate the number of staff and resources that it devotes to pipeline security and to include a Strategic Plan that can help effectively identify the skills and comp ten ti v etencies nece carry out responsibilities. Tsa concurred with those recommendations to address the issues and has efforts under way. In conclusion, tsa has taken important steps to improve security and response to the tsa modernization act, but additional actions will be needed Going Forward and we will continue to review tsa progress for these remaining portions of the act. This contincludes my prepared remarks. Off minute left. Thank you. I thank all the witnesses for your testimony and remind each member that he or she will have five minutes to ask questions of our panelists. And now id like to recognize myself for the first set of questions. Miss cogswell, as you know, part of the tsa act, congress codified a fiveyear term for the administrator of tsa. The current administrator is wearing two hats. One is the administrator and the other is acting secretary. And given his dual roles and duties, whos running the daytoday operations at tsa . Sir, 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. Thank you. How do you decide which issues are delegated to him versus you . And how has that affected the implementation of the act . With the way we have been approaching this process is through longstanding close collaboration. As you might expect, i talk to him multiple times a week. I look for any issues that i believe are particularly sensitive or time consuming nature to ensure there is no instance where he would be caught off guard. Given the concerns that we have, and im sure youre doing great job, do we need a stable leadership at the top of these agencies should these vacancies be filled . It is incredibly important for tsa to have stable leadership over an extended period of time. I think it is one of the best parts of the act was 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 position 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. And i can think of no one Better Qualified to be able to serve in this position. As you know, Homeland Security is a Critical Role defending our citizens here and around the world. So we want to be of as much help as possible making sure youre able to implement your mission. Turning to another issue, which is workforce issues, as you know, the subcommittee has motioned on the issues affecting the workforce, section 1907 of the act requiring that tsa convene a Workforce Group with labor and submit to congress a report continuing recommendations to reform tsas Personnel Management system. What is the status of that report . The working group has formed and has had many effective discussions. We extended the period of time because the discussions were so productive they had additional items to include. They concluded deliberations at the end of august and completed the drafting of the report in september. It is now in clearance. When do we expect that . I hope it will be in a matter of weeks. Thank you. The statute also says the working group should reforms to the tsa Personnel Management system including appeals to the merit system protection board and grievances procedures. Were those topics considered by the working group . Specifically the group highly focused around discipline and grievances, yes. Id like to turn over i now yield and id like to recognize Ranking Member the subcommittee, the gentlewoman from arizona, police lesko. You also have like a minute left. Were really buzz big here. This is great. Well have a second round. Oh, okay. Im 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 that screening technologies continue to meet detection requirements after they have been deployed to airports. In this review, the gao recommended that tsa implement a process to ensure technologies continue to meet detection requirements after deployment and that tsa is currently reviewing this recommendation. So my first question is for mr. Russell. Can you expand on this a little bit more . So were putting in new technologies, say ct scanners and were not checking up on them to see if theyre still working . Is that what youre saying . Right. What we found is for the field screening technologies, think about the body scanners, other pieces of equipment, theres an initial certification process when they complete the procurement process to ensure, run it through all its paces, it meets all the requirements expected, then it gets deployed to airports. What we found is that on usually a daily basis, most airports have a calibration kit they run through the equipment that checks various diagnostics for that equipment working properly, but that check 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 say the factory and that certification testing. Thats what were getting at. So, mr. Russell, this detection, would it normally be done by people that are just trying to sneak things through . Is that what it would be . Or youre saying after hours or whatever you would test it . How do you test it . Thats where we have the recommendation that we think tsa should devise a process for how you periodically check that the equipment, once it is operating at that high Detection Level when it left the certification process. Okay. Thank you. And miss cogswell, in relation to that, what can tsa do better . Do you have any ideas how you can do this . I went to that area where you were testing the different technologies and that type of thing. So how would you do a better job at this . How would you test somebody . Would you do, like, surprise checks with undercover people . What are you thinking . Thank you, maam. Do very much appreciate your visit to our transportation Security Integration facility and would offer any of your colleague, if they would like to come see it as well, we would be happy to have you out. This item is still under review. We are still putting together our official response. I think youve highlighted one of the most important pieces is ensuring that the plan that we come up with will meet gaos interest while recognizing we already do testing today as you highlighted. We already have processes by which we have covert testing against 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 really understand what performance levels are at each time. This recommendation i think goes at a slightly different area, which is the efficacy of the technology over time. Weve got a couple ideas around this, but well want to have a good discussion with gao to make sure it matches their thoughts because to your point, we cant bring a live explosive to a checkpoint on a regular basis given all the equipment we have, how is the best way to approach this that meets the needs but is feasible and effective. Thank you. With the 51 seconds i have left, i have a question that really doesnt deal with this gao report, but its to do with real i. D. Its said to be in effect that everybodys supposed to have a real i. D. , a travel i. D. By october 1, 2020. Does tsa have any thoughts . Im worried people wont get these things in time. People are trickling in getting these like ive gotten one and my son has gotten one, but the deadline hits, what are we expecting is going to happen . Because i think every single Congress Member is going to be, like, tons of calls are going to happen because theyre going to show up at the airport without this real i. D. And they cant fly. So at this point, the most important thing we can do is get wider awareness of the deadline out to as many people as possible and help people understand that they have more than one option. So both you can get a real i. D. , compliant license but if your state is not quite there, you also have other options to receive compliant documentation. Examples include passports, a global entry card, a military i. D. So 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, to conduct local enrollment events at airports, at other locations to try to ease that burden and make it more readily visible to people on how they can quickly update. Right now, most critical, we need to get the word out. And i think all of us should help in doing that because otherwise theres going to be a lot of people who will call our offices i think. You had mentioned one of the alternatives is global entry. Is precheck also an alternative . At this time, its important to recognize how precheck works today. Through precheck, we conduct a series of additional verifications looking for a thre threat information within someones background. However, when someone shows up at the front of the queue, what theyre often presenting is their drivers license. Under statute and implementing regulations, we are not allowed to accept a noncompliant driver driv drivers license after november 1, 2020. Thank you. Thank you, miss lesko. Id like to recognize mr. Cleaver for five minutes of questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Miss cogswell, thanks for being here, mr. Russell, thank you as well. None of this has anything to do with your work, but, you know, ive been in almost every other month it seems weve had either a full hearing or committee hearing, weve had a new director or a new acting director, which cant possibly be one of the Better Things thats happening to the agency. Thats not a question. Thats a declaration. And so, my concern is not only are we having, you know, the changes at the top but, you know, when we talk about the workforce issues, we still have an unbelievably high turnover rate of tsa employees. And thats i hope that is as troubling to you as it is to me because, you know, i do an average of 1,800 air miles a week, and so, you know, i get a chance to know the guys for about six months and then theres a whole new group coming in. It seems like every flight, every other time i come to the airport theyre training a new group to come in. My analysis is that its due to the poor pay. Are we going to get that changed . Thank you very much for the question. And i appreciate your efforts and interests in ensuring that you are caring for our workforce. I appreciate very much and know i appreciate your engagement at the checkpoint when you go through. It means a lot to them when people care to ask about how their day is rather than rushing along. As to pay, what we have authority to do 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 a differential to them now. That differential ranges from about 5 over the regular salary to up to 60 of the regular salary depending on local conditions and the level of retention issue we see at that specific location. We have additional authorities with respect to other pay reforms that 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. What we dont have, however, is budget to make broad scale changes across the board. Okay. Lets put a period right there. You can put a comma. Because so, let me interpret what i thought i heard you say. That 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 would assure employees that theres a future in this. We are very much working right now on a series of options that we are considering within the administration and look forward to working with congress. Okay. Youre very kind. What im i guess you cant we need to pay them more money and if we or i need to push for a higher budget, if theres an understanding that everything is being done now to increase the salaries with the budget that is there, then my belief is that we need to do budget increase, whatever we need to do because ive never understood this. The people in whose hands we place our lives every for me every week, sometimes three or four times a week, we pay them less money. I mean, it just doesnt register, you know, with me. I cant figure it out. So i want to fix it. Mr. Russell, can you help me . Somebody help me. Can you help me . What do you think . What needs to be done . Yeah, so one of the things weve seen in 2018, we did a report that looked at the staffing allocation mod toll figure out how many airports or how many tss need to go to the airport and we found that system is effective but budget constrained according to the amount of funding they have and trying 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 without the current budget. If that helps. I think my time has run out before my questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Miss cogswell, tsas explosives detection is a critical element, screening passengers and baggage for a wide range of explosive threats. The tsa modernization act included several provisions aimed at improving that program. Section 1928 requires tsa to issue behavioral, medical, and technical standards for thirdparty detections, canines to screen passengers in progress. What is the status of this provision . Any insight into what the committee can expect to see in terms of standards . Thank you very much, and i share your appreciation for our canine detection teams. You know, every time i go out to airports or other locations and i see the canines in action, while i love my job, i wish i loved my job half as much as those dogs love their job. Every day you see their incredible dedication and hard work, and i love seeing both the canines and their handlers in action. I will say as to your specific question, we have formed the working group and the working group has submitted their recommendations to tsa. We are now in the process of formalizing those standards and should have those completed in the next month or two. Also authorized a third party canine cargo screening program. How has this provision been implemented and what has the response been from transportation stake holders . We issued the regulations last december and began immediately training the various teams. We have more than 230 teams that have been certified to date including a number of third Party Entities who are able to provide that certification. Overall, we have seen a tremendous interest out of the cargo environment and receive a lot of support from industry for implementing that provision. Thank you, maam. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Yield back. Thank you, mr. Bishop. Id like to recognize you for five minutes of questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Miss cogswell, you mentioned in your opening remarks some progress done on Service Transportation security. The act, the tsa modernization act, pushes tsa to study innovative ways to advance Service Transportation security. Under section 1981 of the act, the tsa is required to conduct the feasibility assessment of introducing advanced Security Technologies into surface Transportation Systems and increasing vetting and identifying verification of the surface transportation passengers. The assessment was due to Congress April 3rd, 2019, but has not yet been produced. Can you tell us why thats the case and whether there has been an impact on the staffing that has impacted this deadline . Thank you very much. As was noted also in my testimony, we stood up the surface transportation security Advisory Committee. We have also done a significant outreach effort across the country to engage with the various stakeholders involved in this process to identify what are some of their highest interests and needs so as we developed ideas for that Feasibility Study and analysis we were taking on those items of most interest. Do we know when the study will be ready for congress, the one due in april . We still have some additional work under way within tsa to finalize that analysis and then it will need to go into review. It will be into early next year. Early next year. In 2013, a gunman shot and killed a tsa officer at Los Angeles International airport, my home airport, and in 2017, a gunman shot and killed five people at ft. Lauderdale international airport. In the aftermath of these shootings, dhs and tsa called for airports to create unified Operation Centers to coordinate Emergency Response and improve communications. In section 198 7 of tsa modernization act, requires tsa to provide stakeholders a framework for establishing such centers. This language came from my bill, the strengthening local transportation securities capabilities act. What is the status of this effort and what resources has tsa provided to airports . Maybe you can shed some light on how many airports have created these unified Operation Centers. We have issued those guidelines. We have currently our staffing fulltime at 12 unified operations centers. And we have another four that are staffed intermittently depending on the various exercises or response activities under way 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 stake holders within the Airport Community to promote a positive unified response. Okay. What more can tsa and congress do love to push airports to establish the centers . Is there anything else we can do to be helpful . Continuing to talk about it. Youre highlighting the need, the reason for people to not meet each other for the first time on a bad day, to regularly work problems together is the most important thing. I want to applaud the work of tsa and the work of the men and women on the front lines i call it at our airports. I am a Firm Believer that the greatest Terror Threat is going to come through airports and seaports and the tsa officers and the work they do is so critical to the safety of americans and the homeland, and so i want to applaud their work day in and day out. My colleague touched upon the issue of pay and salaries. I frankly cant understand why we pay the min and women on the front line such a low amount of money when they are responsible for our security. And so im greatly concerned about what we can do love to increase morale, increase retention, and make sure that they have representation to be in the strongest position possible. Now the tsa modernization act directed your agency to create a working group to work with labor representatives and produce a report outlining recommendations on how tsa could perform its Personnel Management system. Im aware that tsa is late in submitting this report to congress, so im hoping you can provide clarity on it. When can we expect this report and can you now list any recommendations provided by this working group . The working group had a very productive discussion, agreed upon a number of joint recommendations. The report is in final administration clearance. We hope to have it cleared within the next few weeks. Great. Thank you. I yield back. Miss wattson coleman. Youre recognized for questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Miss cogswell, how are you today . Good. You were just asked about the working group. Did the working group consist of the Union Members as well . Yes, maam. When was it constituted . It started in the spring and went after the shutdown and went through full meetings went through the end of august. So the report that youre going to make is something that has that youre going to report on, is that consensus between the union and the agency with regard to these tsos . Yes. Were really excited to see that. The National Deployment force, which is the shortterm Deployment Force when theres a need, whether its seasonal or issue remitted, is said to assure theres adequate screening sources. The ndf was codified in section 1988 of the tsa modernization act actually based on my bill, the tsa National Deployment force act. The ndf was deployed last year to larger airports like seattle and denver where tsa did not meet hiring goals and to airports in hawaii, where tsa has a difficult time attracting candidates. What steps are you taking to hire permanent tsos at those particular challenging airports . 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 this is a critically important aspect for us. I agree with you 100 . I just want to know what were doing about trying to recruit people at those airports. We have increased retnention incentive in those locations and normal location hiring so they can ensure consistency over time with a full complement of staff needed as well as authorizing some additional measures, local travel, et cetera, so that there could be nor v more lode balancing between hub and spoke airports in those areas. So the work group that was constituted is also going to address these issues of these areas that you particularly like to live at but dont necessarily want to work there under the current conditions. Is that so . So they dont affect how you work out these challenging airport hirings and retention. The work group specifically looked at discipline procedures as well as grievance procedures focusing on those elements directly. Did it also look at hiring and retention . It did not. Was there an intention for it to look at the issue of retention in particular . That was not an area where we signed them up for this round. We are having a number of other areas. Im asking, though, does the bill, the law include the discussion with the groo work group around those areas . I do not remember at this time. Im not quite sure, but i think it does because i think we were concerned about the recruitment and the retention and the discipline, you know, and any other sort of employee procedures, so i would appreciate feedback on that if you dont mind. I want to ask you about something that has come to my attention with regard to 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 and tsas alleged inability to respond in such a way that keeps these air marshals from burning out. You ive had a series of suicides. You had several allegations of sorry, siri allegations of just sort of Mental Health issues. And a lot of them having to do with scheduling and the hours working and the deprivation of sleep and things of that nature. I was just wondering do you all have something that youre doing internally thats addressing these issues in particular that you could highlight for us now and perhaps we could discuss it later . Absolutely. Look forward to discussing it more in depth. That article did not bring forward new data. It was looking at prior information so that the important piece to note is we already had a number of items under way. The first is what the right mix and balance is of flying versus on ground time. That can mean your training team, it can mean what we call, groundbased assignment where you rotate out of flying for some period of time and perform some other security function, for example, at the airport. It also looks at how we best provide services to our air marshals so that they have the help they need should they need it and equip other members of the workforce to help engage with their colleagues. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, it is an issue i would like for us to look at more in depth. So noted. Well go in that direction. I yield back. Thank you very much. Ill like to recognize the gentle person from new york, mr. Capco, for five minutes of questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Appreciate the opportunity. Welcome to you all. Thank you for being here. As part of the tsa modernization act, there was multiple Insider Threat provisions contained in it. Id like an update. Were past the deadline for that and give you an opportunity to explain why we havent received the information yet. If you could tell me where were at in the process. First tell me briefly why you havent met the deadline included in the bill. Thank you very much. The most important part through all of those Insider Threat elements is to ensure close detail collaboration and cooperation with the various stakeholders involved. As you know, we dont actually implement these by thairss in most instances. We are asking the airports to implement when we issue a regulatory action. What we want to do is ensure that the recommendations we identify as much as possible are done through a jointly collaborative process and that our Feasibility Analysis including the Economic Analysis that goes with it fully is is fully informed by what your stake holders see and believe would be the impacts. The deadline i believe is okt. Do you have a projected deadline when all theelz provisions will be accounted for and reported back to us . Probably the largest piece, the Feasibility Study, we had to do a survey of more than 310 airports, responded to that, which was wonderful input towards that analysis. That one is wrapping up in terms of its process and is about to go into interagency clearance. I hope therefore you would 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 together to put together an overall roadmap for Insider Threat for all modes. I understand that because it sort of doesnt answer my question. When do you expect to have all this done . The actual report for all the recommendations we look to have by early january. I appreciate that. I am concerned theres a provision we ask you to follow that didnt get in a timely manner but i do appreciate the diligence. If it goes past january, we might be a little more upset than we are now. Just be forewarned. Precheck was passed into law. Whats the status of the laws requirement to preserve the integrity of the precheck lanes also establishing what the administrator said was the established modified screening lanes or flex lanes for other passengers determined to be low risk. We conducted pilots earlier this year for both models. Coming up on that, we determined both models are feasible, both models have demonstrated throughput that we can manage. What we then needed to do was, one, determine all those o locations, those airports, we could implement well in advance and which locations during a pure precheck lane wouldnt allow us to manage the overall throughput for that airport. At this point in time, we believe we are ready to start executing and have started executing cutting over for all those airports where we believe we can do so now. We believe in the end thats going to be about 75 of the total of 440 airport where is we will be able to implement. Now, the current status of the precheck lane, is there nonprecheck members still going through the precheck lane . There is, but as i noted we are starting to cut over now. You will start seeing airports when you say cut over, what do you mean . We started this week. When you say cut over, what do you mean . So for those airports specifically we will no longer have rules based inclusion being used in that process. Okay. When do you expect to be at 100 precheck only in precheck lanes . Thats what the bills about. Thats what were really interested in. We are very mindful of the deadline and the interest to achieve that deadline. We very much also recognize the importance of providing a consistent experience. What we want to also not do, however, is totally disrupt an airport by doing so in a way that doesnt make sense. Critical to this is us being able to identify additional lowrisk populations that would be eligible for some other kind of modified screening that is not as streamlined as precheck. That process 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. I want to forewarn you all, that is not an optional date to be in compliance. I dont want to have another hearing back here saying you didnt comply with that date either. Its very important from a security standpoint that only people that are in precheck, which is a higher level of repetitive screening of those candidates, should be in precheck. Also, people pay for it and its a service they expect to have and enjoy. That is not an optional deadline in that law. I want to forewarn tsa if that deadline is not met theres going to be a lot of problems from this committee. Understood. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Katko. I concur with you on that specific point. That should not be an option. Like to ask unanimous consent from this committee to have miss jackson lee join us here and have miss jackson lee ask five minutes of questions. Without objection. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. First of all, let me acknowledge the chairman and the Ranking Member for their courtesy and the members of the committee and with a little built of a nostalgia, this is a committee i chaired some years ago. So i want to express my appreciation to all of the tsos tho work across the nation and to reiterate what ive done over and again that since 9 11 the American People would be, shocked and amazed of the terrorist threats and danger to the Aviation System that tsos have prevented. I am concerned on several thing, but let me first of all start with every time we mention the employment landscape or the labor numbers, it looks like tsa says all is well. But you will find not even in the ordinary course of business, holidays or otherwise, that there are long lines and people are not in place or shifts are changing. What are you going to modernize from the perspective of a free flow of a seamless system that has enough tsos to be in place, whether or not theyre at the ait machine or elsewhere, to provide that extra level of comfort regarding the security mechanism that theyre responsible for . Tsa has an extensive model where we receive information from the Aviation Community about projected volumes, number of tickets sold, when new flights will be on board, so that we can model not only airport by airport but down to checkpoint by checkpoint based on projected volumes. You have highlighted correctly there are instances where those models dont quite work. Number one is anytime theres a thunderstorm set 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 the most important part from our perspective, we are working to ensure our throughput time lines within established standards,er 30 minutes for standard and 10 minutes for other. Does that mean do you have every tso that you need to make the system work across the United States of america at this time . There are a number of instances, and we are working closely with those airports, where airline volume continues to increase at a hefty rate, which is fantastic for our economy of this country. Unfortunately, a number of these airports were not actually built to accommodate that level of throughput within the existing lane structure. In those instances, we work very closely with the airports to understand how best can we open up a new lane, move shops or other to make additional space. We then staff those lanes as they become available. We also talk with them about what their longer term plans are for redevelopment of their terminals to service those additional volumes. I want to make the same point and follow up about the deadline regarding the certified identification. And i would hope that we could get an update as we move toward the deadline. I just fear a great deal of confusion and also persons inability to have that i. D. Let me ask the question because i have another question. Are you all doing a sort of lastminute massive education outreach level that you can actually hear it and pierce it, that means all levels of social media including the oldfashioned television . Ive seen and heard nothing, absolutely nothing. So . Yes. We are working extremely closely across the board with the travel industry, talking to them about how they can change up some of the communications they have as passengers are actually buying tickets. We are as people are flying now, our officers are advising someone, the document you are providing my time is you will do an Outreach Campaign yourself . We are doing an outreach. Youre budgeted to do that. Before the deadline. We have started already. Let me ask you about the travel program. I want to raise the name of crystal sonnier with the new black panther party. I have spent the time dealing with the crisis of treatment by tsa when she travels over and over again. From my perspective, and her background, she poses no threat. What is her route of getting off of i assume it shows up on her ticket. I use her as an example. Shes allowed me to use her name. What is the process for someone like when i first acame here, t kennedy, john lewis were on the list. How do you extract yourself from being off this list . Also, as they do their job, i think it is very important to do their job, let me be very clear. But can you have them particularly sensitive to the approach, to the language, to how you move the person around . Obviously they are not a threat right there because you already see they dont have any weapons. Theyre already in the security area. But what is their process . Yes, maam. Theres a couple pieces i would highlight out of this. The first and foremost is the ability to go through whats called dhs trip, so anyone who has had an issue while traveling may apply through dhs trip. This is a program that is government wide but we manage it out of tsa. The number one thing we find is the vast majority of individuals who are applying arent actually on a watch list but might have a soundslike name, similar spelling, similar name, similar date of birth and therefore are inadvertently matched against a record. Quite easy for those individuals. We are able to distinguish them after they provide additional information. We give them a redress number. When they use that in their travel making wit the airline, we therefore know not that person. And therefore they will not match. I will pursue that with you further and try to directly make sure that we can find a way. I think it should be publicly made. Mr. Chairman, this is something that happened in the early, early, early stages of tsa when an 8yearold boy spent two years trying to get him off a watch list. Late senator ted kennedy as i said, john lewis, and a number of others were on this list and were either rejected for tickets or couldnt get through. We havent heard as much but we still have some of them as you well know. I think for the traveling public, certain tsos are doing their job, but i want to make sure theres a pathway for those going through security and are not threats and are treated as such. I thank you for yielding. I look forward to working with you and monitoring the modernization program. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, miss jackson lee. Absolutely right. Thats an important issue. Were you, mr. Cleaver, on that list as well . I left out my pastor here. Thank you. Yes, you were. Dont want to speak out of turn. But i think he knows how it feels. I assume because he has a very important and unique name. I yield. Thank you. Lets start a second round of questions. Ill start out with myself, recognizing myself for another five minutes of questions. I want to follow up to mr. Cleavers comments about tsa personnel pay. Still have a lot of parttime folks working, correct . If i was to, you know, extrapolate from my discussions some of your workers, you do have a high turnover. I think if you have a parttime job, most of the folks working for you are there parttime until they can get another fulltime job somewhere. So i think thats the crux of the issue. So this is a budgetary challenge that we have . We actually as part of the 2020 budget changed up the ratio for our parttime and are decreasing the number of parttime individuals authorized across our airports. There are specific locations it still makes a lot of sense. You have individuals who have retired from other jobs and dont want to work a full schedule. Work is very well for them. Especially in those locations depending on the type of workforce would you say a lot of parttimers would prefer to be parttime or fulltime . Those specific ones i highlighted would prefer to stay parttime. Others would very much like to and would prefer fulltime. I imagine a lot of folks not required that probably want some stability from a fulltime job and finally have that opportunity. I guess my next question is in terms of budget, we have that tax, that fee we pay on tickets. Thats supposed to go to Airport Security . Yes. And it goes to Airport Security . All but the amount set aside under the budget control act to go to say that again . All i love the way you put that. Can you restate that . It doesnt go to Airport Security. It does not. That amount does not. That goes to deficit reduction. The remainder comes to tsa. We tax our passengers for security and that money does not go to security. It goes to debt budget reduction. Thank you. Lets move on to Small Business participation. This committee is also focused on increasing Small Business participation, especially in the area of new screening technologies. The act requires tsa to produce a strategy. Back in february you were supposed to get there. Whats the status of the strategy and why are we eight months late on this specific area . The strategy is within administration and our agency clearance. We hope to have it out in the next few weeks. I will say this is an area that i do actually feel quite proud of. Id like to take a few minutes talking about it. Please do. There are areas to seek and incentivize and build out. It is critically important to look for new entrants in this space, that we not solely see just a consolidation of the market but we also look for the best ideas, even for frankly more importantly for individuals who have maybe never thought of themselves as working in the security community. Just as a couple 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 education institutions to look at new algorithms for our ait machines, the body screening systems. Incredibly promising work all from individual who is 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 look to deploy them out. Increasing both our detection and reducing our false positives that we see in that arena. Other examples, of the 2. 1 billion that tsa spent last year in acquisitions, 450 million was actually to Small Business, exceeding our target for last year. Almost a quarter of our entire work. Ct machines, you say Small Businesses engaging in this area. Of business. Yes. One of the vendors directly involved and is currently undergoing trials is in fact a Small Business. What percentage of your nonservice contracts are set aside for Small Businesses . So at this time, we do not have a set aside, but we have indicated in the current ct procurement we may choose to have a set aside. Do you have a set aside for veterans . I dont know the answer. I can follow up with you. Please. If i might highlight one other area if its acceptable . Please do. In this past year, just as an example, we do a Broad Agency Announcement that before. We have those algorithms in the lab now depending how those look weway would plan to deploy them in terms of deeks and reducing false positives in arena other examples of the 2. 1 billion that tsa spent in acquisitions 450 million was to Small Business exceeding the target last year. Almost a quarter of our entire work. Ct machines do you see Small Businesses Small Business. What percentage of your nonservice contracts are set aside for Small Businesses . So at this time we have dsh do not have a setaside but indicated in the current c. T. Prekurmt we may choose a setaside. Do you have a set aside for veterans . I dont know the answer. I can follow up with you. Please. Which is because of my last name. But for of an american airline, Government Relations person here in washington, im not sure that i would id still be on this. But thats not what i want to talk about. I want to talk about money. This is not your fault as i said before. But i think youre about the fourth person this year that i raised this issue, because of my concern. And so, you know, how long are you going to be here . How long are you going to be here in the job . Im not intending to leave any time soon. I was selected for this job. Been here about 18 months. So the problem is that, you know, i talked to one person and they say okay youre right we got to do something. And then the next month we have a new director, acting director. And so i dont i dont want to waste your time and my time talking about something you wont be around long enough to address. Tell us, what is the starting salary for a tso . If you look at the base salary without the locality pay included its about 27,000, roughly equivalent to a gs 4 in the jenner schedule. If you add in locality pay, most locations is about 33,000. The gs four is probably not going to get a shot at it. Im sorry. A gs 4 is probably not going to get shot at. The gs 4 position modelled after is the position that is designated by opm for what is called unarmed security guard, is the compare. I share with you recognizing the strong prolongs professionalism of the workforce, the increasing automation they are required to know. Vulnerability in the environment and completely concur that i value them well before that. We got to get in fixed. I mean, i know the let me just you know, maybe ill have to do something when we dsh did hopefully were getting a budget or some kind of spending bill. Because there are a couple of things i want to get in there. One is we got to stop paying people putting lives on the line a pittance. And youre the fourth person ive talked about the Kansas City International airport. Kansas city, missouri, is one of only two airports in the country where we dont have the government tsa workers. And you know, i cant work there is nobody around long enough to work with because i want to get that stopped and changed. San francisco is the other airport. And but i dont want ours to stay like it is. So two things that i need your help on, one is the money and one is the private contractor who is running the tsa airport in kansas city, missouri. Im not mad at him or her. But it started out, you know, just like we were the facial recognition, you know, we started it started out as, you know, some kind of a test pilot pilot project, rather. And the pilot then rolling now for since 9 11. And i need it to be changed. Can you change it by the time i come back next week . The Screening Partnership program is established in law, sets out the compact parameters for how we are put out the parameters, the requirements for how the program operates. How we identify which vendors will be able to meet the well there are only two. Everybody else is on the federal program. We have 24. Little bitty airports. Youre talking about ive been to those airports too. Texas, during high school, i mean, youre right. But im talking about the largest city in the state of missouri, the largest city in the lower midwest. And we still running on a program that supposed to be temporary. Were happy to come and talk with you more. We work very closely. When can you. With the airports involved. They are the ones determining whether or not. Who. The airport. The Airport Authority is the one who says they want to pursue the private entity. We dont have an Airport Authority. I used to be the mayor of the city. We dont have an Airport Authority. Well be happy to come and talk to you more about the airport. Ill be happy to work with you after. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Cleaver. Id like to recognize miss jackson lee for five minutes of questions. And i again say how i grateful i am for your kindness and to the committee. Let me say to congressman cleaver, please count me as joining in enthusiastically. When this program began, i was in opposition to it, again not in any reflection on contractors. But i think because the tsos are front line security for National Security, there should be a consistent managing structure. And as indicated, congressman, the aprils opted in, given but it was put into law by us, individuals who i thought privatization was a good thing. And many of us opposed it. But it is in law. That means the airport can opt in but can opt out except as sort of a lease not a lease but a contract, whether it runs out or not. I think thats what happened. The other thing i want to make sure is were no longer thinking about not having tsos at small airports. Remember that was proposed in some i think mindless concept that we wont put them at the small airports, well wait until someone gets on the plane as a terrorist and go to the big airport. So i just want to get that answered. Thats no longer on the table regarding small airports not having tsos under the transportation security administration. Correct. The other thing is i want to join and make the point about the salaries of tsos because one of the modernizations is the questions that gao mentioned and id like him to expand is the modernization of technology. I want to know, are we moving fast enough . Is tsa moving fast enough with the new type of technology to detect more sophisticated ways of terrorist behavior, sir . Certainly, so we have seen with the computer tomography at the checkpoint thats the latest technology being piloted. But certainly we are thinking adversaries are changing tactics, new threats. When we last looked at tsass covert Testing Program we saw some challenges there and what their own red teams were able to find when they did their covert tests. And so i think the key there for tsa is really, one once you know the vulnerability, whether technology, or processes or things that the tso might be doing or could be doing better to find a Mitigation Solution and get those complemented. We had a few recommendation nas tsa is working on in that regard. Ky yield to the deputy to see are you moving on the recommendations of the gao with the doll. We are moving on the recommendations have a significant program. I highlighted our Innovation Task force as one of the key areas where we are able to rapidly bring onboard potential solution that is have gone through an initial review with that ability to do demonstrations, determine the effectiveness well before ready for full market. This lets us expedite our requirements process frankly as well as understand whether or not there is feasibility in a specifics location plp significant improvement over traditional procurement processes. Does that mean holistically youre trying to make amends or correct the slowness in technology or to expand technology and then train tsos on the new technology. Correct. Is that a goal you are working on. Absolutely to all three of those, yes. And i would add i compliment the gentleman from kansas missouri, kansas city, on raising the contracting issue. My concern would be in these airport that is accepted that, i want to make sure the salaries are comparable and that you are taking under advisement the need for increased salaries. What do you need from us i know money. But what is the structure that you need to increase the salaries of your tsos . So to just highlight the point you made about the difference between the tso and the spp airports. We require they pay the same amount we do. If we are able to identify additional funds to increase salaries they would be required to match as well. What we would like in the nearterm is the ability to have some robust conversations with you about different models, whats within our authority . Whats the options within the funding caps we receive for the coming years to determine the best path forward . And extremely i cant say enough how extremely valuable we think it is that you are asking the questions and expressing in interest. Incredibly value for the workforce morale as well as the interest demonstrating the interest appear performance of the officers day to day. We opened a couple years back the academy in georgia. I want to know how thats working and the idea of professional development. Are you all still encouraging i understand you send tsos to that cool after theyve been on staff for a while. You change the format. Is that working and accurate what im saying can you tell me how thats working. Absolutely yes we change our model. We found when we stood you will up centralized capability which came people onboard immediately sending them to multiweek training then in rapid order they understand what life was like working at a chief of police and dieding is wasnt the bet best fit through the new model we train them on certain functions that dont require that full training, let themt experience the environment see how loud it is, see what its like interacting with several thousand people a day. Make sure its a good fit for them then go through the training. We are seeing a decrease in the number of people leaving after the training, saving us the expense of that as well. So professional development is very important . Critically important and part of the tso career progression as well. We need to keep funding. Absolutely. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And i want to thank the witnesses for your very valuable, important testimony. And i want to thank the members also for questions. And if i can, miss cogswell, you heard some of the messages here today were important to us try to reduce turnover, implementation of technology, precheck, and of course the issue of mr. Cleaver brought up which is how do you get off the lists once you are on them . Members of the committee have any additional questions for the witnesses, we ask that you respond expeditiously in writing to the questions. And without objection, the committee record shsh be kept open for 10 days. And seeing no further business, this subcommittee stands adjourned. Thank you very much. The u. S. House today approved the rules for the ongoing impeachment inquiry of President Trump process. The vote 232 to 196. The measure lays out the next steps for the impeachment investigation in the coming weeks. It was mostly a partyline vote. But two democrats voted against measure. Colin pederson of minnesota and Jeff Van Drew of new jersey. And former republican member justin amash voted yes with democrats. The house is not in session next week back in session on november 12th. The white house put out a statement saying the president has done nothing wrong and the democrats know it. Nancy pelosi and the democrats unhinged obsession with this illegitimate impeachment proceeding does not hurt President Trump. It hurts the American People. The statement went on, that is unfair, unconstitutional and fundamentally unamerican. 40 years ago. Iranian students overran the u. S. Embassy in tehran and held 52 americans hostage for 444 days. Sunday watch two American History features on the hostage crisis a. At 8 30 a. M. Eastern oh our guests on walsh journal. Carter Administration Official and Stewart Eisenstadt and john limb bert. Taking viewer phone calls and tweets. Then at 10 00 a. M. On real america, the 1989 film, 444 days to freedom, detailing the hostage crisis. With no help coming, the besieged staff retreated floor by floor. One american john limb bert went owl auto to try and save a live. He was immediately blindfolded and bound and threatened with death. The americaned surrendered. Explore our nations past on American History tv. Every weekend on cspan3. Sunday, live at noon eastern on indepth, Princeton University professor i mane perry joins to us talk with africanAmerican History and racial inequality. My mother came of age in jim crow, alabama. My mother lived her youth through a White Nationalist society. And it has come back. And openly officially White Nationalist society. Yes. Yes. And it has reared it has reared its head again. Her recent book is breathe, a letter to my sons. Other books include prophets much the hood and may we forever stand. Join the interactive conversation with the tweets be phone calls and facebook messages. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern on after words 2k5i6d shell she shellen author of it shouldnt be this hard to serve your country. Recounts his time as the secretary of Veterans Affairs in the trump administration. Interviewed by iraq and afghanistan veterans of america ceo jeremy butler. The governments involvement in v. A. Healthcare is the most effective way of honoring our nations commitment to our veterans. That does not mean that veterans should not have the ability to go into the private sector when its in their best interests, when the care is better, or specialized care is available thats not in the v. A. I think we all believe that that should be available. Watch book tv every weekend on cspan2. Up next, the state Department Officials discuss u. S. Relations with iran, turkeys military operation in syria and humanitarian efforts in the middle east with members of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. All right. This hearing will come to order. Well, everyone. The bc