Providing for Consideration of H.R. Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of Providing for Motions to Suspend the Rules; and Waiving A Requirement of Clause 6(A) of Rule Xiii with Respect to Consideration of Certain Resolutions Reported From the Committee on Rules

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 877 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 877

Resolved, That at any time after adoption of this resolution the Speaker may, pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XVIII, declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1140) to enhance the security operations of the Transportation Security Administration and stability of the transportation security workforce by applying the personnel system under title 5, United States Code, to employees of the Transportation Security Administration who provide screening of all passengers and property, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. The amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the Committee on Homeland Security now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as the original bill for the purpose of further amendment under the five-minute rule and shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. No further amendment to the bill, as amended, shall be in order except those printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution. Each such further amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a Member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the House or in the Committee of the Whole. All points of order against such further amendments are waived. At the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the Committee shall rise and report the bill, as amended, to the House with such further amendments as may have been adopted. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions.

Sec. 2. It shall be in order at any time on the legislative day of March 5, 2020, for the Speaker to entertain motions that the House suspend the rules as though under clause 1 of rule XV, relating to a measure making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020.

Sec. 3.

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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave
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Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

On Monday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 877, providing for consideration of H.R. 1140, the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of 2020, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security and makes in order nine amendments.

Lastly, the rule provides suspension authority for Thursday and same- day authority for Wednesday and Thursday, both limited to the consideration of a supplemental appropriations bill.

Madam Speaker, when the Transportation Security Administration was established as a response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, its Administrator was given broad authority over its workforce with respect to setting up pay and workplace conditions. As such, Transportation Security officers, TSOs, have been unable to benefit from Fair Labor Standards Act protections or fall under the general schedule pay scale. This distinction puts TSOs in a different class from other federal workers, preventing them from having the representational rights afforded through the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

Each day, TSOs screen more than 2 million passengers at over 440 airports nationwide. These workers are critical to helping Americans travel safely and make up more than 70 percent of the Transportation Security Administration's workforce. However, TSOs are among the lowest paid Federal workers and routinely have among the lowest retention rate of any Federal agency. TSO annual pay lags well behind industry counterparts, and even the top performing TSOs with exceptional performance find it difficult to advance within their pay bands.

This was not Congress' intention when it gave the Administrator broad latitude to manage its own personnel system, nor was it Congress' intention that this authority should be used to benefit management over frontline TSOs, as is the case today.

As a result, in the past decade TSA has come to rank near the bottom in Federal employee morale surveys. This has created a culture in which last year the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said that TSA must address its retention, hiring, and training challenges.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record excerpts from that 2019 report entitled ``TSA Needs to Improve Efforts to Retain, Hire, and Train Its Transportation Security Officers.''

TSA Needs To Improve Efforts To Retain, Hire, and Train Its Transportation Security Officers What We Found

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs to continue to improve its retention, hiring, and training of Transportation Security Officers (TSO). Specifically, TSA needs to better address its retention challenges because it currently does not share and leverage results of TSO exit surveys and does not always convey job expectations to new- hires. Prior to August 2018, TSA did not always focus on TSO career growth. Thus, the agency may be missing opportunities to prevent early attrition. By improving its retention efforts, TSA could save funds otherwise spent to hire and train new TSOs.

Furthermore, TSA does not fully evaluate applicants for capability as well as compatibility when hiring new TSOs. Thus, the agency may be making uninformed hiring decisions due to inadequate applicant information and a lack of formally documented guidance on ranking potential new-hires. Without complete information, TSA may not be selecting the most highly qualified individuals as TSOs.

Prior to July 2018, TSA had not standardized the approach for training new TSOs before they attend basic training and did not consistently send TSOs to basic training immediately following onboarding. TSA also does not give all airports complete visibility into its basic training curriculum as a basis for training new-hires locally. Without an experienced workforce or a consistent, robust training program, TSA is missing opportunities to strengthen its workforce. Given the importance of TSOs fulfilling the aviation security mission, TSA must address its retention, hiring, and training challenges, which could save millions in taxpayers' dollars. TSA Response

TSA concurred with all nine recommendations and initiated corrective actions to address the findings. ____ Memorandum for: The Honorable David Pekoske, Administrator, Transportation Security Administration. From: John V. Kelly, Acting Inspector General. Subject: TSA Needs to Improve Efforts to Retain, Hire, and Train Its Transportation Security Officers.

Attached for your action is our final report, TSA Needs to Improve Efforts to Retain, Hire, and Train Its Transportation Security Officers. We incorporated the formal comments provided by your office.

The report contains nine recommendations aimed at improving TSA's retention, hiring, and training efforts for its Transportation Security Officers. Your office concurred with all nine recommendations. Based on information provided in your response to the draft report, recommendations 4, 6, and 8 are closed while recommendations 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9 are resolved and open. Once your office has fully implemented the recommendations, please submit a formal closeout letter to us within 30 days so that we may close the recommendations. The memorandum should be accompanied by evidence of completion of agreed upon corrective actions and of the disposition of any monetary amounts. Recommendation 3 remains unresolved and open because we did not agree with TSA's proposed corrective action plan. As prescribed by the Department of Homeland Security Directive 077-01, Follow-Up and Resolutions for the Office of Inspector General Report Recommendations, within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, please provide our office with a written response that includes your (1) agreement or disagreement, (2) corrective action plan, and (3) target completion date. Also, please include responsible parties and any other supporting documentation necessary to inform us about the current status of the recommendations. Until your response is received and evaluated, recommendation #3 will be considered open and unresolved.

Consistent with our responsibility under the Inspector General Act, we will provide copies of our report to congressional committees with oversight and appropriation responsibility over the Department of Homeland Security. We will post the report on our website for public dissemination. ____ Conclusion

TSOs are critical to airline passenger safety and the security of the aviation transportation system. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act charges TSA with developing standards for retaining, hiring, and training security screening personnel at all U.S. airports. Passengers rely on TSOs to screen other passengers and baggage properly at more than 400 airports nationwide. In FY 2017, TSA hired more than 9,600 TSOs and spent approximately $75 million to recruit, hire, and train them. Improving retention, hiring, and training of TSOs would save costs and provide a more stable, mature, and qualified workforce to better secure the Nation's aviation transportation system. Recommendations

Recommendation 1: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, continue to coordinate efforts with Security Operations to implement actions that facilitate improvements in the hiring process to ensure applicants are informed of the Transportation Security Officer duties and that TSA continues to hire qualified applicants. At a minimum, TSA should:

a. require an applicant affirm whether he/ she has reviewed the Transportation Security Officer Realistic Job Preview video and understands duties include interacting with passengers, passenger patdowns, shift work, weekend work, and holidays. If the applicant has not, ensure the applicant reviews the video as part of the application process; and

b. finalize the implementation of the agency's job compatibility assessment tool for use during the hiring process.

Recommendation 2: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, revise the exit survey process to:

a. ensure airports offer local exit interviews;

b. record results in a centralized system;

c. provide relevant stakeholders access to the results for analysis and process improvements; and

d. address areas identified in the exit survey results that would help retain a skilled and knowledgeable Transportation Security Officer workforce.

Recommendation 3: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, continue to review and develop recruitment and retention strategies for reducing attrition:

a. at smaller airports; and

b. among part-time Transportation Security Officers.

Recommendation 4: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, meet established timelines to implement the first phase of Career Progression for newly appointed entry- level Transportation Security Officers.

Recommendation 5: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, examine increases in pay based upon skill level for Transportation Security Officers that could help attract and retain a strong workforce.

Recommendation 6: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, compile a local hiring update message to remind airports to follow TSA records retention policies for Airport Assessment documentation.

Recommendation 7: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Human Capital, formally document system functional requirements, such as the rating process criteria, for quality assurance purposes to ensure proper system logic in how applicants are ranked on the Certification Lists.

Recommendation 8: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Training and Development, coordinate with Security Operations to enforce the pre-Basic Training Program requirements.

Recommendation 9: We recommend the Assistant Administrator, Training and Development, provide all airports access to the Basic Training Program curriculum in its entirety. Management Comments and OIG Analysis

TSA concurred with all of our recommendations and is taking steps or has implemented actions to address them. Appendix B contains TSA's management comments in their entirety. We also received technical comments to the draft report and revised the report as appropriate. We consider recommendations 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9 resolved and open. Recommendations 4, 6, and 8 are closed. Recommendation 3 remains unresolved and open because we did not agree with TSA's proposed corrective action plan. A summary of TSA's responses and our analysis follows.

TSA Comments to Recommendation 1: TSA concurred with the recommendation. TSA explained its efforts to make every TSO applicant aware of the realities of the TSO position and ensure the agency conveys job expectations to TSO applicants. These efforts include participating in job fairs and career events, hosting in-person and virtual information sessions, attaching an airport-specific fact sheet to every TSO Job Opportunity Announcement posted on the Federal Government's official employment site, USAJobs, and creating and sharing the TSO Realistic Job Preview video that is communicated throughout the hiring process and accessible through various avenues. TSA will mandate that personnel scheduling the Airport Assessment review an airport's hours of operations, typical shifts and days off, and typical duties of the position. Additionally, TSA will modify the Airport Assessment scheduling script to advise that each applicant is required to watch the TSO Realistic Job Preview video prior to attending the assessment. TSA expects these actions to begin by March 31, 2019. Additionally, TSA plans to include a compatibility assessment tool in the TSO hiring process, which the Office of Personnel Management will validate. The estimated completion date to pilot and fully deploy the compatibility assessment tool is September 30, 2019.

OIG Analysis of TSA Comments: TSA has taken steps to satisfy the intent of this recommendation. We consider this recommendation resolved, but it will remain open until TSA provides documentation to support that all planned corrective actions are completed.

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Ms. SCANLON. Fortunately, Madam Speaker, this bill before us today will address each of those challenges. The Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act will honor those who protect America's aviation security by bringing the TSA personnel system within the bounds of the rest of the Federal workforce.

H.R. 1140 will put an end to the current TSA personnel directives that have allowed the TSA to be the judge and jury in workforce disciplinary matters, and require TSA to follow the labor-management employee relations statutes that provide workplace rights and protections to most Federal employees under title 5 of the U.S. Code; the provision that is most notable in efforts to increase employee retention and morale by putting TSOs on the general schedule pay scale and finally aligning pay with the vast majority of other Federal employees.

This legislation has been a long time coming for the men and women who protect our skies and keep millions of us safe on a daily basis. During the 35-day partial government shutdown at the end of the last Congress, TSOs were required to work for more than 5 weeks without pay. At Philadelphia International Airport in my district, a typical entry- level salary for a TSO is about $29,000 per year, without including additional locality pay.

Working without pay for over a month would be difficult if you made three times that amount, Madam Speaker, but it is unconscionable that the Federal Government would force the very people we trust to keep us safe into having to turn to food banks, short-term loans, and donations to make ends meet. Yet these Federal workers kept reporting for work even when they couldn't afford gas and parking. These are not hypotheticals. In my district alone we collected food, diapers, gas cards, and other necessities for TSOs who were not being paid.

The Federal Government did not live up to its commitment to these TSOs, but these civil servants did not waiver in their dedication to keeping the flying public safe.

My colleagues across the aisle have objected to this bill which would support our Federal workers by claiming that our national security is at risk, that TSA would lose flexibility, and that the bill is too expensive.

To the first point, I would say that a TSA staffed by underpaid and overworked TSOs is a greater threat to national security than paying a fair wage to keep Americans safe. Pay is one of the top reasons that the TSA struggles with keeping good employees. We lose current and potential TSOs every day because they can make more money in lower pressure work environments elsewhere.

Whether in business, law, or government, you get what you pay for, and I, for one, do not believe that the security of our airports and skies or the lives of the traveling public are something we should be looking to get a bargain on.

Further, granting the TSA workforce full collective bargaining rights under title 5 would not deny TSA the ability to remove bad employees or interfere with TSA's authority to direct security operations. Federal agencies already under title 5 jurisdiction have the flexibility to quickly deal with bad actors, but ensuring that proper protocols are followed in termination proceedings is a right that must be afforded to employees. This includes other Federal agencies with security and enforcement operations such as Customs and Border Patrol, the Department of Defense, and others.

The TSA has had years to address its issues of recruitment, retention, and training, but has failed to do so. Now it is time for Congress to bring TSA in line with other Federal agencies. The TSA is not a new Federal agency, nor is it destined to go away. So, in that sense we must make sure that these patriotic civil workers are properly compensated and given the workplace rights that they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, as expected, we have heard that eliminating the unique personnel management tools that were initially afforded to the TSA is somehow going to undermine the organization, but this ignores the reality that those tools are no longer needed nor effective.

The record is replete with evidence that we need to reform the way the TSA is managed in order to address very, very serious issues of recruitment, retention, and training.

What is posited here is a false choice between workers' rights and national security, and we reject that choice.

We were given an example of gross sexual misconduct as a reason why workers shouldn't have organizational rights. But under title 5's rule, which would apply under this bill, agencies can expedite personnel actions against employees accused of criminal activity, and they also can be removed from their duty post for potential harm to themselves or to others.

Again, this is a false choice between workers' rights and national security, or just plain old management.

Jackson Lee).

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon), a member of the Rules Committee, for her leadership. I thank the minority's representative, as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to enthusiastically support H.R. 1140. I am very proud to be an enthusiastic cosponsor of this legislation and to explain to my colleagues and the American people how we started the Committee on Homeland Security, as a founding member, if you will, being here during the heinous terrorist acts of 9/ 11 and knowing that the Nation needed to put together quickly a Homeland Security Department, second in size to the Department of Defense, I believe.

We organized the Transportation Security Administration fast and in a way that the Administrator would, really, have all powers--all powers. In doing so, we failed to give them Federal civil service protection. So, this legislation is legislation that is crucial because the TSA workforce is among the lowest paid in the Federal Government and lacks basic workplace protection afforded to most other government workers. As a result, TSA struggles with low morale and high attrition.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1140, the Rights for Transportation Security Officers Act of 2020, is nothing that has been previously described-- nothing like that. It is an opportunity to maintain a professional force of individuals who every day protect Americans.

It is unfortunate that, as we go through our normal life and we see TSO officers, and we see them in their blue shirts and their dark pants, we take them for granted, quite frankly.

As a former chair of the Transportation Security Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee, I was intimately engaged in knowing just what the work was that they did.

Do we understand the numbers of weapons that are found every day? I am saying it generically because some of this is classified.

The number of incidences that are thwarted, if you will, by TSO officers--do we realize that one of our great officers lost his life in Los Angeles, and his family suffers?

This bill would provide reasonable protection. It would give gradations of salaries. It will allow us to keep a professional staff.

We attempted to put a Band-Aid on this by providing for professional development training in Georgia, where other Federal law enforcement academies were. That was not enough.

In fact, they had to change it for these individuals who work for a period of time before they went to the academy because they were losing people after they went to the academy because they were not earning the compensation that they should. There was no promotion.

Just the other day, a very fine young woman, excellent, who was respected and had come up to headquarters, she left us for another Federal agency because there was no advancement or opportunity.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, these are fine Americans. Many of them are former military, and they support their families. To give them the opportunity to, first of all, have a right to grievance, to ensure that they have nonreduction on pay and compensation, that they have preservation of their civil rights--there is no right to strike. But it is a right to have the ability to engage their employer and to be able to be respected.

Mr. Speaker, I am enthusiastic about this. Names like Bill and Patrick and Alfred, other men and women of the Transportation Security Administration, the TSOs' names, I am sure, that we could call in our respective airports, the people we know every day, our neighbors. They do a great and fine job.

We must pass this bill, and I hope we pass it in a bipartisan way. Think about not paying those who are saving your lives every single day in the Nation's airports. Think about how you are treating them. Think about the low pay. Think about the compensation that does not allow them to have high morale.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the show of support for passing this bill, and I ask my colleagues to support it.

H.R. 1140 is a pro-security and pro-Federal worker piece of legislation.

The TSA is no longer a startup agency requiring maximum flexibility during a period of national emergency, and Congress, in previous administrations, has taken actions to reflect that.

Ten years after its creation, in 2011, TSA employees were given labor union representation. This was a good step forward. However, the time is now to provide the 60,000 TSA employees the same worker rights and protections afforded to other Federal workers under the U.S. Code.

It is a sad and shameful day for the government when anyone is forced to turn to food pantries to feed their family, employed or not, but it is unacceptable that Federal workers who work to protect and serve all Americans would be without a paycheck for weeks at a time--over the holidays, no less.

Working people all over the United States are sacrificing more and earning less. This is a systemic problem that will not be solved by this bill. But, in order to rebuild the middle class that got so many of us into this body where we are today, we need to value Federal workers for the job they do and the services they provide to all of us.

There are times and places for cutting costs and reducing expenses, but I do not believe that we as a body should do so in a way that negatively impacts national security or does so to the detriment of the men and women who keep us safe. I believe it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to responsibly pay its Federal workers.

The hundreds of thousands of civil servants in this country do not belong to one political party or all subscribe to the same political beliefs. No, they do their jobs because they are in service to this Nation, and, in return, they deserve reasonable wages and rights in the workplace. I do not think that this is too much to ask.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.

The material previously referred to by Mrs. Lesko is as follows: Amendment to House Resolution 877

At the end of the resolution, add the following: Sec. 4. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall resolve into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for consideration of the bill (H.R. 5595) to impose additional prohibitions relating to foreign boycotts under Export Control Reform Act of 2018, and for other purposes. The first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. After general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. When the committee rises and reports the bill back to the House with a recommendation that the bill do pass, the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or without instructions. If the Committee of the Whole rises and reports that it has come to no resolution on the bill, then on the next legislative day the House shall, immediately after the third daily order of business under clause 1 of rule XIV, resolve into the Committee of the Whole for further consideration of the bill.

Sec. 5. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 5595.
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