A decision by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) earlier this month to fire three dozen employees and suspend 12 more for failing to screen checked luggage at an airport in Hawaii has prompted two House Republicans to ask the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Inspector General office to investigate why the screeners failed to do their jobs, including the agency’s oversight of its screeners and corrective actions.
For Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the failure of TSA screeners at Honolulu International Airport is another black mark against the agency and more reason to allow airports around the country to opt for private screeners over government ones.
“Unfortunately, the incident at Honolulu Airport is just another example of what can happen when the nation’s transportation security agency acts as both operator and regulator of aviation screening,” Mica said in a statement. “TSA should encourage Honolulu and other airports experiencing similar problems with underperforming or non-performing federal security personnel to opt out of the all-federal screening model and apply to join other airports that successfully utilize the private-federal model provided in existing law.”
Earlier this year, TSA halted an expansion of the private screening program, called the Secure Partnership Program, saying there were no obvious benefits to it.
Mica was joined in his request to the DHS IG by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Homeland Defense. Chaffetz, who is a critic of TSA’s use of whole body imagers used for primary screening at airport checkpoints, said in a statement that the “incident in Hawaii only magnifies my concerns and highlights the failures of the TSA,” adding that he hopes the IG “investigation will be the catalyst for change.”
After its own investigation into the matter, TSA said that some of the checked bags that were supposed to be screened by one shift of the agency’s employees “were purposefully improperly screened.”
Mica and Chaffetz also want the IG to examine whether screener training requirements at Honolulu were current and consistent with national requirements, to review TSA’s processes for removing under-performing and non-performing screeners at the airport and in general, and a detailed summary of the screener breakdown.