The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Thursday approved by voice vote the nomination of Coast Guard Adm. Peter Neffenger to be Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will consider Neffenger’s nomination on June 10 before the Senate votes on him to be the next TSA chief.

Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Peter Neffenger. Photo: Coast Guard
Nominee to be lead TSA, Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Peter Neffenger. Photo: Coast Guard

The Commerce Committee’s vote comes days after Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson directed TSA to improve the training of its Security Officer and to re-evaluate its screening equipment after the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General provided preliminary findings of a classified, covert testing report showing weapons and simulated explosives easily getting through security at airports (Defense Daily, June 2).

“Investigation by the TSA’s inspector general paints a picture of an agency that is not fully up to the task of protecting the traveling public,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ranking member on the Commerce Committee, said in a statement following the vote on Neffenger. “That’s why we need to get new leaders like Admiral Neffenger in there quickly.”

President Barack Obama in late April tapped Neffenger, who is the Coast Guard’s vice commandant, to lead TSA. If confirmed, Neffenger will succeed John Pistole, who left the agency last December. He will retire from the Coast Guard before taking the position.

The DHS IG’s briefing to Johnson led him to immediately remove then Acting TSA Administrator Melvin Carraway and reassign him to a position in DHS headquarters. Mark Hatfield, the acting deputy director of TSA, is temporarily leading the agency.