Hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security Subject: Holding the Department of Homeland Security Accountable for Security Gaps

Statement

HEARING OF THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
SUBJECT: HOLDING THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ACCOUNTABLE FOR SECURITY GAPS
CHAIRED BY: BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS)
WITNESS: MICHAEL CHERTOFF, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

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The chair recognizes the gentleman from Massachusetts for five minutes. Mr. Markey.

REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D-MA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.

Welcome, Mr. Secretary.

Mr. Secretary, there's a new report out today from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. It's on the department's oversight of passenger aircraft cargo, and its conclusion is that security faces significant challenges. This is the redacted version of this blistering, scalding indictment of the department's handling of passenger -- of cargo inspection on passenger planes.

Let me just summarize with some of the quotes from this report. It says this -- I'm quoting now -- that "the current level of oversight does not provide assurance that air carriers are meeting congressionally mandated goals of tripling the amount of cargo screened for passenger aircraft."

Quote, "TSA information reported to the Congress regarding air carrier compliance with legislative and regulatory requirements may be inaccurate."

Quote, "TSA security programs are not clearly written. TSA's aviation security inspectors and air carriers to interpret and apply the regulations do so differently."

In other words, Mr. Secretary, your existing program for screening cargo going onto passenger planes is in a shambles.

Let me read a couple of other quotes. It says that TSA is unable to make sure that third parties, such as air carriers or shippers, are following the rules.

It calls into question TSA's ability to monitor and report air carrier compliance in screening regulations. It says that aviation security inspectors who are supposed to be monitoring compliance with the current screening requirements are poorly trained and lack the resources needed to do their important job.

So, Mr. Secretary, this is under the existing law -- existing law. Now, we just passed a new, tougher law that I am the author of. And what we've learned over the last week or so is that the TSA intends not on physically inspecting all of the cargo which goes onto passenger planes, a hundred percent of which is required under the law, but instead Kip Hawley, who runs TSA and that department, under your leadership, is now saying that they are going to do a modified version of what they're already doing; that -- rather than having real screening for bombs, looking inside of cargo.

So what I want to know, Mr. Secretary, is, is your department going to follow this new law? Are you going to require a hundred percent screening of the contents of all cargo going onto passenger planes? Or are we going to come back in another year and have another blistering, scalding indictment of this double standard where all of our bags are screened, all of our computers are looked at, all of our shoes are taken off, but on the same plane goes cargo that has not been screened?

SEC. CHERTOFF: Well, first of all, let me say the IG report in question -- and sometimes it happens with these reports -- reflects investigation and accumulation of information, some of which goes back over -- well over a year ago. And so many of the things that were raised in that report had already been corrected by the time the report was published.

In fact, I think it may be that TSA itself asked for this kind of a study so they could begin the process of fixing some of these issues themselves.

By way of example, I think the report talks about the fact that there's an exemption for certain cargo from being inspected. That exemption was eliminated some time back.

Some of the hiring issues that are raised in the report were corrected. We have many more inspectors.

Some of the issues about -- on clarity in protocols have been corrected with new protocols.

So I want to first of all assure the public that many of the issues identified there have been happily corrected in the period of time since the matter was studied.

Now, we do have a new law. We are committed to a hundred percent screening of air cargo. And you know, some of the speculation in the papers about what we're going to do or not do, I think --

REP. MARKEY: Are you committed to physical screening of the cargo that goes onto planes in the same way our bags are given physical screening?

SEC. CHERTOFF: Well, a combination of -- either of physical screening, either by government inspectors or by certified shippers who have to conduct the screening --

REP. MARKEY: This report says that you can't trust --

SEC. CHERTOFF: Well --

REP. MARKEY: -- you -- and they're saying -- you wouldn't trust a shipper to go onto the passenger section of the plane with their bag. Why would you trust a shipper to put cargo on the very same plane?

SEC. CHERTOFF: Congressman, let me ask you this question. When you flew down here from Boston to come to this hearing, you got on an airplane that was inspected by the private sector. It wasn't inspected by the U.S. government. Every day people get on airplanes where safety checks are undertaken by airlines or by private companies --

REP. MARKEY: No, my bags --

SEC. CHERTOFF: Let me finish.

REP. MARKEY: -- my bags went through a screening.

SEC. CHERTOFF: The plane itself, the engine, the avionics of the plane were checked by the private sector. Every --

REP. MARKEY: My bags were checked for a bomb. The cargo is not checked for a bomb.

SEC. CHERTOFF: My point is that while I agree with you we have to check all the cargo, I do not agree that government inspectors have to do a hundred percent of the checking themselves.

REP. MARKEY: Mr. Secretary, my time is running out. All I'm saying is, it sounds to me like the Department of Homeland Security is cooking up a deal with the air cargo industry and the airline industry in same way that they cooperated with them in the non-implementation of the pre-existing law, which wasn't as strong as this law.

And I'm very concerned that passengers in America thought that Congress was tightening the law so that every piece of cargo was physically inspected with the same standard for bags, and what I'm hearing is that you are reserving the right to allow the air cargo industry to continue to evade this law, as they have for the last five years.

SEC. CHERTOFF: I couldn't disagree more. I don't think that's what I've said. I think what I've said is that we do intend to execute the law and hold everybody to the standard of checking.

The one thing I have said that I guess you may take some issue with is that, in much the same way as we direct the airlines to check the airplanes themselves to make sure they're airworthy, we are going to put into effect a certification program that requires shippers to check packages before they're palletized and shrink-wrapped so that we have the same standard of protection.

Now, if philosophically there is a belief that we cannot ever trust the private sector when we tell them to do something, then I have to say that, frankly, Congressman, you have no business getting on an airplane, because we do not physically inspect every airplane; the private sector does.

REP. MARKEY: No. No, no. I -- they -- no one trusts me to get on the plane without checking my bags; that's correct. A congressman should not be trusted in the passenger cabin of a plane. But you shouldn't allow a shipper who's standing right behind me in line to not have his bags checked because his cargo's going on and you trust him with his cargo.

REP. : Mr. Chairman, are we under a five-minute rule?

REP. THOMPSON: We are flexible.

REP. : Well, two and a half -- Mr. Chairman --

REP. THOMPSON: I say we are flexible.

REP. MARKEY: I -- all -- you are saying you have -- you want to think outside the box. That's okay with me, Mr. Secretary -- as long as you check inside the box.

SEC. CHERTOFF: And -- and --

REP. MARKEY: And right now you do not have a system that will check inside these boxes physically to make sure that there are no bombs. And the public has an expectation, or else there'll be a firestorm that comes from this committee and others in Congress that you are not putting in place a law that implements the expectations of the American people.

I thank you.

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