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Union Leader: Ayotte: TSA vetting 'mind-boggling'

Press Release

Date: June 9, 2015
Issues: Transportation Criminal Justice

Holes in the Transportation Security Administration's vetting process for workers are simply "mind-boggling," U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, said in an oversight hearing Tuesday.

Ayotte questioned John Roth, Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, regarding a report that the TSA's vetting process failed to identify 73 aviation workers found to have had terrorism-related links.

An Inspector General investigation, designed to test airport screening, also saw undercover auditors smuggle simulated explosives or weapons past security checkpoints 95 percent of the time, according to media reports of classified information.

Ayotte, as a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said it was inexplicable why the TSA was not vetting workers against the FBI database. "I think all of us are quite shocked by this in terms of basic common sense," she said.

Ayotte pointed to the Inspector General report, released June 4, which stated that current law and FBI policy does not authorize the TSA "to perform recurrent criminal checks of aviation workers because aviation worker vetting is considered to be for non-criminal justice purposes." Ayotte said that bureaucratic steps should be taken post-haste to fix or update what the TSA refers to as the "interagency watchlisting policy."

The committee also heard from TSA administrators and from federal air marshal Robert J. MacLean. MacLean, who was fired for being a whistleblower before later being reinstated, testified that the TSA should take additional steps to secure the cockpit and flight deck. He said "pre-check" should be expanded in order to free up personnel to perform additional security checks around the airport. "I hope we don't need another 9/11 to prove that we were accurate."

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing for Admiral Peter V. Neffenger, the nominee for TSA administrator, on Wednesday morning.


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