[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9130]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TSA REPORT CARD IS A GRADE 4

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, TSA is the government agency that is 
supposed to keep us safe at airports, safe from would-be terrorists 
that would go through screening and get on America's airplanes. It 
comes about as a result of the 9/11 attacks on our Nation.
  Anybody who flies has been through firsthand--no pun intended--the 
TSA experience at airports. I, like many Members of Congress, go 
through TSA screening two times a week, back and forth from my district 
in Texas. I know numerous TSA employees. Many of them are my friends.
  My comments today are not about the TSA employees, but recent news 
reports about what is taking place at TSA generally, and these news 
reports are disturbing, Mr. Speaker.
  Recent internal investigation has revealed that 67 out of 70 times 
banned items got through TSA screening at airports through undercover 
investigations. That is a 96 percent failure rate or, looking at it the 
other way, that is a grade of 4. TSA gets a grade of 4, Mr. Speaker.
  Now, one example, there was an instance where a TSA screener failed 
to find a fake bomb strapped to the back of an undercover agent going 
through screening. This was even after the fake bomb set off the 
magnetometer. They still didn't find it. Now, isn't that lovely? Good 
thing it was a fake bomb. Fortunately, this was a test. This was part 
of the undercover investigation. It was not a terrorist seeking 
mischief at America's airports.
  There is more alarming news. Not just the fact that the investigation 
shows a grade of 4 in folks that are going through the security system, 
it is also reported this week that TSA failed to identify 73 airport 
workers who were linked to terrorism. Now, what is this? These are not 
TSA employees. These are the folks that work behind the security area 
in the airport, and TSA was not able to identify 73 airport workers 
linked to terrorism. Now, isn't that lovely? These people, you see, are 
the people who go to the airport every day, maybe sometimes go through 
a special line to get behind the security area.
  TSA claims it didn't have access to the terror watch list 
information, so it couldn't identify these potential bad guys. I 
personally find that difficult to believe that the agency in charge of 
security at the airport is not able to get security background 
information about people that work behind security at the airport. In 
any event, that is not an acceptable excuse for this type of action.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, a grade of 4 would not be acceptable anywhere, 
anyplace in our society, at a business, at school, anywhere, the TSA 
grade of 4.
  I will give you another example. Let's say you want to have a home 
security system at your residence, and you go out and you solicit 
different folks that are in the home security business. You meet one 
sales rep, and you start asking the sales rep, ``How good is the 
security system?'' The security guy says, ``Well, we have a grade of 4. 
We have a 4 success rate. 96 percent failure rate.'' You probably 
wouldn't hire that guy to install the security system on your home.
  If you ask him a few more questions and he says, ``We are not only in 
charge of the security for your home, but we secure the folks that work 
on your residence when you are gone to work, the plumber, the welder, 
or the guy who comes in your house, whatever,'' then if you found out 
that those people who are allowed to go in your home and work through 
this security system have a reputation for being burglars, you probably 
wouldn't hire this security agency to do the security on your home.
  That is exactly what is happening at our airports. The success rate 
is only 4. We wouldn't hire that agency to do our home, but yet here is 
the agency that we have to guard our airports.
  This is not an indictment about TSA employees, but I think it is an 
alarming concern about TSA's general management. The problem is the TSA 
model of security. It can only get a grade of 4--which would not be 
acceptable under any system.
  You know, there really can't be mistakes and errors like this at our 
Nation's airports. One thing that we could do, one consideration is we 
could go to private screening at our airports. The law allows for that. 
Airports ought to consider those private screeners and maybe think it 
through, whether or not that is a better alternative to the TSA system 
that gets a grade of 4.
  And that is just the way it is.

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