Updated its concept of operations to focus on riskbased deployments. The question is, have the events of the last two months since the budget was released convinced the administration that doubling of the vipr program is needed to address current threats . I appreciate the Attention Congress is giving to tsa resources and i will tell you this, mr. Chairman, if i were to receive more vipr teams, i would be aible to put them to use you an put them to use across the transportation system. I would be able to deploy them more effectively with our partners in the surface world and would deploy them to more public areas of our aviation environment. Let me just ask one last question here in the year past year and a half, we have seen repeated abuses of airport cita badges that grant airport workers access to secure areas of the airport, badges used by airport and Airline Workers to bypass tsa checkpoints in this case facilitate criminal activities like gun and drug smuggling. These incidents raised a lot of questions whether our airports are vulnerable to an Insider Threat and as i mentioned earlier in response, along with our committee members, senator nelsons ayot, cantwell, johnson and klobuchar introduced the Airport Security enforcement and oversight act to help counter some of the aviation Insider Threats by improving the vetting, credentialing and nmgss of airport workers. Do you think its important to update and expand the criminal background checks and random inspections of airport workers that have access to the secure areas of an airport . Mr. Chairman, thanks for that question. As you know thats been a big concern over the time that ive been here, and as i came in, it was on the heels of the incident in atlanta and some other concerns. And as you noted in your Opening Statement we have hey some of the same concerns with respect to the attacks overseas. So im very pleased and happy that congress has given us the support that they have, so i think youre right to focus on that. The additional access this committee in particular was very supportive of our access to additional tide categories that made a huge difference in terms of current vetting. Id like to see us fully implement the fbi wrap back program before the end of this fiscal year, so that we can do continuous recurrent criminal vetting and i think anything we can do to tighten the oversight of the insider population to verify their trusted status i think is worth doing. Thank you. Senator nelson . Mr. Chairman, i want to take the opportunity particularly to tell our democratic members of the committee that apparently we just received word that there has been an agreement on the tax issue and therefore if that is true, when we get to the floor in just 35 minutes, it looks like were going to be able to proceed without that controversy that previously we had known about. So we ought to be able to get on the bill. I want to just piggyback on a couple of the points raised by the chairman. The gun running scheme showed tremendous vulnerability, especially 300 airports in the country, and lo and behold only two up to that point, only two had done a Perimeter Security, where they had reduced to a handful the number of entry points and had the adequate checking of the badges to make sure the airport employee was who they said they were, as well as checking in one of the machines the stuff that they brought in. Things that were not done in atlanta that allowed over 100 guns to be transported into the airport, then the employee goes up into the sterile area into the mens restroom and transfers the weapons to a passenger who has come through security. Atlanta has now complied so thats atlanta, miami, orlando. What about the rest of the 297 airports nationwide . Senator, i had exactly the same question, and it was a wakeup call for atlanta as you noted, they put a lot of measures in place, the private sector employees what about the other 297 . Earlier this year i ordered a detailed Vulnerability Assessment across the entire system for those other airports that you mentioned. That assessment, the results of that assessment are coming in this month, and the purpose of that assessment was to answer that very specific question. First and foremost, what have you done, but whats the nature of your insider population, employers, what are they doing. Thats the question, what is the answer . The answer there has been a lot of movement in terms of reducing security Access Points across the system. Theres been a lot of movement to enhance the oversight of that insider population, both by tsa, as well as by the employers. A lot of movement. Such as . What im going to have to provide to you in a report is once we evaluate, we add requirements into the Aviation Security, the Airport Security plans for each of those airports to take the best practices that were finding from miami, from orlando, from atlanta, and to drive those into the other airports across the country. I was concerned that we hadnt had a lot of specifics on that. Mr. Administrator, the best practices are obvious. You have to check the airport employees, so as your testimony today, is it nothings been done . No sir, thats not my testimony. Weve done quite a bit. We are checking. Tsa increased a number of inspections of employees by fivefold, just in the past five months and we do that ourselves. You dont have enough resources. The airports themselves you got to get the airports to do it. And they are doing that. Airport by airport. Give us the report. Thats coming your way, way. I wanted to give you good specifics from these Vulnerability Assessments we conducted so i could give you specific answers airport by airport to exactly the question youre asking and those are due this week as a deadline for getting those in. Well compile a report and get it to the committee. Why couldnt that have been done in time to the report to this committee since that was such an obvious question that you were going to be asked . The answer i would have to you is that i didnt have, i felt, adequate specifics to satisfy this committee on the specific measures taken so thats why we went back and i ordered a very specific Vulnerability Assessment, airport by airport. It was done a short time frame in conjunction from the recommendation of Aviation Advisory Committee and so i could give more specific answers and provide specific direction with respect to the requirements well put in place. That said we have greatly enhanced the oversight and airports have greatly enhanced their oversight already. Its not as if nothings been done. I want to know exactly what has been so we can ensure consistency across the entire system. Mr. Administrator, you have a ste rile, sterling reputation. Its not sterile. Its sterling. You have a sterling reputation but thats an insufficient answer in a flaem has been begging now for two years and the only person to get the airports off their duff to limit access into their airports is going to be you and your administration. Yes, sir. I realize that you can say that you have a specific jurisdiction of requiring security checks on whos going on the plane but what about the stuff which may be getting on the plane which may be the same thing so you have to go for a different perimeter. We do that im sorry if ive given the impression nothings happening. Thats not true. Weve greatly enhanced our oversight of cargo screening facilities, the catering facilities. There are quite a few measures in place, ill provide a specific outline of those for the record but its oversight of the caterers, the catering facilities, oversight of the cargo, the way in which the cargo is inspected, the multiple steps which were inspecting cargo that wasnt done before. The amount of Perimeter Security checks that werent done before, the reduction in the Perimeter Security entrances into each of the airports covered by Airport Security plans. So a lot has been done. What i was referring to, i wanted to give detail airport by airport and i asked for much more detail so i could outline it specifically and move that into the required security plans in an official and directed way. Ill just close, mr. Chairman by saying this. Its pretty simple. You lessen the number of entry points, like atlanta had over 100 down to a handful. And you check the employees going through. You cant do that just as tsa. Youve got to get the airports yes, sir. To do that, and thats the report that we want to know in our oversight capacity. Yes, sir. How many airports of the 300 following the lead of miami, which did it ten years ago, have done this to watch so that Something Like egypt and the Russian Airliner doesnt happen here. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, senator nelson. I couldnt agree more. I think it points out the need for senate bill 2361 which i hope we can move. But as you can tell, this is an issue that we screen passengers getting on planes, but there are so many examples now of airport workers with badges that are committing criminal acts and this is an area that i think weve just got to shore up. So thank you, senator nelson. Senator aayotte . Thank you, chairman. I want to add i hope with the if, aa reauthorization on the floor that we will get the Airport Security enhancement and oversight act perhaps added to that, because i think it makes a lot of sense to do that, in light of some of the concerns that we have in this committee and the broad support in this committee for that bill. But i wanted to follow up on this issue as well on the angle of we know that one of the things that came to light that was of deep concern as we thought about the airport workforce was that there were 73 individuals that the Inspector General had identified with reported some ties to terrorism or issues of concern, and as a result of that, we learned that, in fact, tsa was not getting access to the real time information from the terrorist identified tied data to help inform your vetting of these employees that were having access to the airport, and so i wanted to get an update on where we are in terms of you getting access to the information that you need not only to says senator nelson has identified the materials that are being brought to make sure people are inspected but what information you have access to that you know about these individuals who have access at the airport that your average person doesnt have, obviously . Senator, thank you for the question. As i noted earlier, this committee was very supportive in asking for that access, and im pleased to report that we now have access to all of the categories that we need to ensure that were vetting people continuously against those tied categories, and thats allowed us to more effectively screen the credentialed population on a daily basis. Thats going smoothly . It is, yes, maam. It is. Very good, im glad to hear that. I wanted to ask about a bill that Congress Passed in december of 2014. I also serve on the Homeland Security committee and this bill was one that i supported, the transportation security acquisition reform act. This is legislation that required tsa to implement best practices and improve transparency with regard to Technology Acquisition programs because there have been a number of difficulties, challenges and failed programs that havent come to fruition that prompted congress to pass this bill, and so i wanted to get an update on where you were in terms of greater accountabilities on tsas acquisition process. Thats a particular interest of mine as well when i came in. I had dealt with acquisition in the coast guard one of first things i did when i came on board last july is ask the Defense Acquisition Committee to do a top to bottom review of our acquisition programs in the way we conduct them to look particularly for any gaps or processing improvements we could make. That just provided that report to you, took them about four and a half months or so to do that. Im pleased with that report. Were now comparing those requirements against the requirements of the acquisition reform act and making process improvements as we go. What id like to to is ive got a report that were xwilg now for the committee that will show the steps that we can take, i think, that will dramatically improve our accountability, our oversight, as well as the ability actually field capability when we need it. Obviously thats the key because a lot of the work before wasnt fielding capability. Thats my big concern. And spending dollars with no result. Id love for us to receive that report so we can understand where we stand with it and what further action we can support you on to really improve the acquisition process. Thats critical as you think about your mission and making sure that we have everything functioning with our security system. I also to just ask about the manage inclusion issue as i understand it and im pleased that this has happened that you discontinued manage inclusion two . Yes, i have. Which i think is very smart and logical given the purpose of your agency and security concerns and i just wanted to follow up the app that was being used that was, that certainly came under some criticism was was the app, i understand, this app essentially was, some reports that it was 1. 4 million for using this, assuming you dont need this app anymore now that youve discontinued the manage inclusion two. We are not using that app. Okay, was that one of those ones which would be an example where maybe we shouldnt have purchased that . Seemed like wasted dollars to me. I looked at that. It really, it wasnt there was a lot more involved in that contract. Aparentally with an ibm contract from 2013, and that covered that 1. 4 million apparently covered quite a few components or things. So the actual app was significantly less cost in that, somewhere in the thousands. Nonetheless we didnt need it. Nonetheless it is not an app were using anymore. I will tell you i have great concern over the way in which we are spending our contracting dollars, the way in which were spending our acquisition money. Why i did a complete review of the acquisition program. I think we can build controls and more process improvement into it so i can get capability out there at the lowest cost to the taxpayer but produces things we really need. I appreciate your focus on this. To me this is critical as we think about the things we do need to do at our airports that require resources and so not to Waste Resources on things we dont need. I couldnt agree more. I appreciate it, thank you. Thank you, senator ayotte. Senator cantwell . Thank you mr. Chairman and mr. Nefger good to see you again. Many of us participated in a closed door briefing that you gave us prior to the brussels attack, and i thought it was a pretty poignant briefing and post brussels there probably is important, mr. Chairman, to do another one of these maybe in conjunction with Homeland Security or separate as the focus on aviation needs to continue. I wanted to ask you, mr. Neff neffenger, i come from a border state and a lot of traffic moves between the u. S. And canada and weve always held the position that we have to have incredible security. In fact one of our Border Agents caught the millenial bomber on his way to come to the United States to either blow up lax or whatever his mission was, but a Customs Border person caught that individual. So were very well aware of security but were also very poignantly aware of efficiency. We need both. We need both in our system and we know that as a border state because of the amount of slowdowns. So my point is seatac is the fastest fwroeg hub in the country and experienced growth rates 7 in 2014, 13 in 2015 so weve had this map of planning for seatac which was to handle 19 million passengers, and last year we had 42 million passengers, so we have a plan for 19, we just had 42. So we have a problem at seatac. So my first question to you is, one, will you allow for localized regional training, because part of the issue is, with this new requirement of tsa officer training systems, where people are going to, yoerm in georgia. In georgia. Were about to hit this spring and summer and we have cruise ships yes, maam. That greatly impact the flow in the northwest. Will you allow for a localized training so that those individuals can be trained . Secondly, what information sharing do you think that we now need to do. We were successful getting the Cantwell Collins bill that allowed us to do the checkin. Clearance. With the passengers over there. Im fully supportive of that and were so glad we got that in the customs bill. What else do we need to do . Are you for the machine reading sharing helping those airport facilities have better machine capabilities . What lists should we share, and do you, i would assume, being the past roll in the coast guard, the coast guards dogs have played a significant role protecting our ferry system. Do you think we should be making a larger investment in that, and so thats a lot to answer. I really do have concerns about this app. I really think that you need a coalition of constant input on how to get efficiency, you know, paying this much for an app that we shouldnt but if youll focus on the first questions. Yes, maam, with respect to the training, we are going to do local training and you know, the idea at seatac . At seatac, yes, maam. We will address that. We have to mitigate what is going to be a challenging Summer Season pushing as many new hires as we can into the system, directing them to the airports of greatest need. Seatac is one of those and ensuring were working with the local airports and airlines that service those airports to identify the most efficient means of moving it through. That has to do with working with the airlines to understand their travel plans. Thank you for that. That is very important. So were going to do that. As we build capacity in training centers, so th