Address the threat to Aviation Security. Unfortunately, t. S. A. Is still having problems with its technology today. For example, last month, it was reported that auditors posing as passengers were able to smuggle mock explosives and banned weapons through checkpoints at various airports across the country. Earlier this spring, the Inspector General released a report claiming that t. S. A. Does not properly manage the maintenance of its airport screening equipment. According to the i. G. , t. S. A. Has not issued adequate policies to airports for carrying out maintenance responsibility. Administrator neffenger, i want to challenge you to address these issues with the technologies used in the airport environment. As you report this issue consider both the current threat picture and the emerging threats. Keep in mind that they are small and minority businesses in this country with exceptional technologies that could be beneficial to t. S. A. And improve efficiencies at the airport. And i highlight that because weve gotten accustomed to using three or four vendors. And every time weve come before this committee, somebody would say, well, they are the only someone with capacity to do what we need. My question is, how hard have we looked and how cooperative have we been with other people who are in this arena . So i look forward to working with you on that. Former administrator pistol implemented a riskbased approach to passenger screening. However, both the Government Accountability office and the office of Inspector General have identified shortcomings with this approach. Especially when it comes to granting passengers expedited screening through managed inclusion. Significant shortcommings that ive observed with with managed inclusion include problems with the model used to identify passengers for this managed Inclusion Program. And the usefulness of having behavior that takes an officer to implement the managed Inclusion Program. And the reason i say that, mr. Director, is we have been asking for whatever science thats available relative to behavior detection officers and how that falls into this layered system of protection and unfortunately weve yet to get that report back from a scientific standpoint. This past monday legislation introduced by subcommittee chairman katko Ranking Member rice and me, directs t. S. A. To limit expedited airport screening to participants of the Precheck Program and other known low risk passengers. Our bill passed the house. Last week, three new measures were approved by the transportation security subcommittee. As we consider the three bills, we know that there are some issues that remain for the full committees consideration. For instance, significant concerns have been raised by a Diverse Group of labor stakeholders for the measure aimed to address the alarming reports of multiple Security Breaches caused by employees exploiting security gaps and abusing the credentialaling privileges. As we close these gaps we must ensure that the men and women whose job is to protect the flying public are not unduly impacted. As t. S. A. Legislation works its way through the legislative process, we would welcome constructive engagement from t. S. A. Administrator neffenger again, not only do i look forward to hearing from you on how you plan to address these issues, but i also want to hear from you on how you plan to address the most valuable asset within t. S. A. Which is its work force. T. S. A. Is plagued with very low morale and an extremely high turnover rate. Employees cite low pay and barriers to advancement as some of their main issues. Additionally the fellow air Marshall Service has not had a class in nearly four years. Again, i want to know your perspective on this. And what steps you plan to take to improve employee morale and if you plan on employing more federal air marshals. T. S. A. Plays a vital part in protecting america. We can Work Together to help solve its problems. I look forward to this committee working with you as the new administrator and na bipartisan fashion. To help solve t. S. A. s problems. And to improve. With that i yield back. Chairman mccaul i thank the Ranking Member. Other members are reminded that Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. We are pleased to have the new administrator for the t. S. A. , mr. Peter neffenger serves as affers the sixth administrator of the t. S. A. Where he leads Security Operations at more than 450 airports within the United States. And a work force of almost 60,000 employees. Prior to joining t. S. A. , administrator neffenger served as the 29th vice commandant of the United States coast guard. And the coast guards deputy commandant for operations. We want to thank you for being here today. And your debut performance before this committee. The chair now recognizes admiral neffenger. Administrator neffenger thank you. I have written comments for the record and just a brief opening statement. Good morning chairman mccall and rank Ranking Member thompson and the other members of the committee. Thank you for letting me testify in my new role as administrator of the t. S. A. Im pleased to share my vision and my thoughts about the future of t. S. A. Let me begin by saying that t. S. A. Is fundamentally a counterterrorism organization. Our job is to deter, detect, and disrupt those who would harm our system of transportation across the country. Especially the aviation sector. We protect legitimate trade and travel. We have a no fail mission. One for which the consequences of a successful attack overwhelm the risk equation and for we must ensure we deliver mission success. This critically Important Mission is my highest priority. As i appear before this committee this morning, im in the middle of my now fourth week on the job. Although brief, ive been thoroughly impressed with the professionals who occupy our ranks and i want to thank mr. Thompson for noting those. Officers and employees who are sworn an oath to serve their nation in the mission are critically Important Mission that encounters more than two million travelers a day in the aviation sector alone. Ive also had some time to become more familiar with the challenges facing the agency and the development of of a set of priorities. My highest priority is to ensure solutions to the recent covert testing failures. Overall, there are several critical elements that are essential to improving screening operations. First we must ensure the appropriate measures of effectiveness are in place to drive in institutional focus on our primary mission. But we measure is what our employees will Pay Attention to. So its imperative that we get our metrics right. Second, we must employ a culture of operational evolution. One that constantly reassesses our assumptions, our plans and our processes. And must be able to rapidly field new concepts of operation and new technologies. Finally, delivering an effective system and earning the confidence of the traveling public will only come through competence disciplined performance and professionalism. Ive conveyed these standards to our work force. And i commit to you that i will relentlessly pursue these objectives. I take on this challenge with the Leadership Perspective that has been central to my approach, my entire career. A well defined and clear statement of mission, clear and unequivocal standards of performance, training, and resourcing. That enable the work force to achieve success, and an unwavering pursuit of accountability. I will set expectations of strong values for the work force and i will lead with t. S. A. s core values of integrity, innovation and team spirit at my core. Since its creation after the attacks of september 11, 2001, t. S. A. Has played an invaluable role in protecting the traveling public. However, nearly 14 years later, we continue to face a range of threats from terrorists who are inspired by messages of hatred and violence. And a number of terrorist groups remain intent on striking the United States in the west. And we know that some of them are specifically focused on aviation. And more troubling today the threat is more decentralized and more diffuse and more complex than ever before. These per sevent threats are t. S. A. s most pressing challenge. Ouren miss will continually adapt and so must we. We must leverage intelligence, technology, the experience of our frontline operators, and our partners in federal state and local governments in the private sector to employ effective measures. We must pay particular attention to the Insider Threat. A second challenge facing t. S. A. Is retention, training, and accountability. Frontline managers and screeners are critical to our success, agency culture, morale, and effectiveness are a direct result of career long development, recognition, and accountability. In the traveling public expects to be treated with dignity and respect. I will pay close attention to training and Work Force Development to include how to leverage and expand the t. S. A. Academy to develop leaders and improve individual performance and instill a greater sense of pride in our agency, its mission, and its values. A third organizational challenge for t. S. A. Is to ensure it is continually fielding the tools and equipment the work force needs today while envisioning how to modernize our system and transform the traveling experience in the future. I see a future where advanced capabilities can transform the experience while preserving risk based security as a central feature. I think its possible in a an individuals buy row metric identity could become the boarding pass of the future. Linked to Intelligence Systems and requiring passage through an integrated capability design tore detect metallic and nonmetallic based threats. This can be realized with a suitable strategic approach. As such i commit myself to ensuring that t. S. Sarks a high performing, highly capable counterterrorism organization. Gided by a risk based strategy and employing a multilayered Intelligence Driven operation and that we recruit and retain a highly trained work force, one that harks the opportunity for Career Growth and development while placing a premium on professional values and accountability. That we pursue advanced capabilities with innovation and competition central to our way of thinking. And that t. S. A. Continues to strengthen its integration in the intelligence community, in the private sector, with our stakeholders and among d. H. S. And other state, local partners. And develop and lead the work force and adapt and invest appropriately and remain focused on these critical success factors. Finally throughout my years of service i remain aware of the need to balance desires for greater security with protection of the liberties and the rights that we cherish. Safeguarding Civil Liberties and privacy interests is a top priority and i look forward to working with this committee to enhance the safety of the traveling public and to achieve this balance. I am proud to see how the men and women of t. S. A. Each and every day and to have the privilege of serving with them in the defense of our country. Members of the committee, i thank you for the opportunity to be here today. And i look forward to your questions. Chairman mccaul thank you, admiral. I now recognize myself for questions. Admiral, you and i know al qaeda, particularly al qaeda in the arashian peninsula and the Corazon Group in syria are still very intent on hitting the aviation sector. Primarily flew bombs, specifically nonmetallic i. E. D. s. This led to a heightening of screening at 25 airports overseas. We have made some progress against them through strikes, recently taking out the leader of the Corazon Group. And others. But that threat is still there. And with this dismal report card that came in 96 failure rate. Given the threat thats out there, im concerned about the safety of the American People when they travel on airplanes. Not to mention that 73 aviation workers have potential ties to terrorism. Now, i cant get into all the details. Because it still remains classified in terms of what slipped through the cracks. But what are you doing what are you planning to do as the new t. S. A. Administrator to address this enormous failure . Administrator neffenger mr. Chairman thank you for the question. And youre absolutely correct to point out that this is a huge concern. And it greatly disturbs me to know that we had that fale youre rate at the checkpoint. As you know the checkpoint although not the only element system of our security is a critical part of security and the barrier between the sterile and nonsterile areas of an airport and a visible deterrent and the last chance to catch items that we do not want getting onboard aircraft. So as i look at the fill youre rate my immediate questions were the same ones that secretary johnson had. As you know that came out during my nomination and confirmation process. And i had a number of conversations with the secretary. He immediately ordered an establishment of a team to take hard look at the nature of the failures and what theyve done. So i inherited that theme. Ive seen the work that theyve done. And what i can do is ill speak directly to what that team is doing. But ill speak in more systemic terms of what its telling us about where our concerns are. As you know, ill begin by saying that covert testing is a is a net positive because you want to try to break your system of security on a daily basis to ensure that youve got it right. And it goes back to the need to continually adapt and evolve your organization. But when it breaks to the extent that we saw, that that raises some significant questions about how effective that youve been. So what the team has done is they took a hard look at exactly what the nature of each individual failure was. We looked case by case. Of the tests that the i. G. Did and the i. G. And i sat and talked with the i. G. Extensively about this. And theyve been quite open about sharing their results. We looked at the nature of the tests. And we looked to see is it a Technology Issue . Is it a Human Performance issue . Is it a process or procedure issue . And as you might suspect, it is in some cases some combination of those three those three elements. And then we looked to see whether there was whether there was a way to mitigate that. So that what the team has done over the past three months, is to take a part all of those. And you got a detailed brief and i would off to the committee a detailed brief on the specifics of that team. I think that it would be it would help you to understand how were moving forward. And then we looked at how how do we train out those specific failures . Because the immediate need is to train out those failures. So that we dont have a repeat of those. We are now in the process of doing that over the course of the next 60 days by the end of september. We will have trained the failure, the specifics about the failures to every frontline member of t. S. A. That will address the immediate problem. And i think that we can do that. The bigger question is, are there systemic issues in the way we are approaching our business that led to those failures in the first place . So that we what i doesnt want to see is some other set of failures in the future. I know that i can train to these. But im interested in figuring out how we train to the larger questions out there. And thats what were working on now. And that goes to a vision for how you then begin to think of yourself in this continuously evolving continuously adapting way. And as i said, the the thing to remember is that there is there are other elements of the system. Some of them virtual. Some other physical elements of the system. But the checkpoint is one of the most important. And we have to get that right. Chairman mccaul you talked about technology and vision for the future. And you and i have talked about this privately. It seems like we have precheck i think has been a success and global entry, more passenger friendly, nor risk based, which i think is where t. S. A. Should go. But as we look at the future, you have the checkpoint of the future. And the use of technologies. What is your vision for the next say five to 10 years . What will the experience be like . What is your goal for the traveling passenger . Administrator neffenger a wonderful question. Because as somebody who has traveled a lot over the years i know what checkpoints can feel like. When you get there. I do think that theres a vision for something in the future. One of the best terms i heard recently was security at the speed of life. And i like that. There are a number of interesting and innovative ideas out there. I mentioned one in my opening statement. The idea that you are your boarding pass. And if i can tie you biometrically to a reservation and identification and do it in a verified way, then then one, that moves you through the process faster. We eliminate boarding passes. And every airline has a different style of boarding pass and makes it very challenging for those document checkers to check those. Because theyre looking at something different. Theres not a lot of consistency there. So i think we can eliminate the boarding pass and move to integrated technology that does. And right now, theres a challenge because the a. I. T. Machines dont do metal detection. Metal detectors dont do nonmetallic explosives. And nothing sniffs for explosives as you go through. Ive actually seen prototypes of machines that you can walk through and it does all of that in one. Now, can they be fielded effectively . I dont know. I think this goes back to your earlier question about competition. I think we can do more to incentivize competition in the private sector. I am currently right now tied to a process that has me