TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 719, the ``TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015''.

Upon its creation, TSA was given broad authority to hire, fire, and set the terms of employment of its personnel.

This has resulted in employees, such as Transportation Security Officers, lacking the full rights afforded other Federal employees.

It has also resulted, in some cases, of abuses of the system for the gain of a few.

According to the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, TSA's Office of Inspection has been gaming the system by employing a bloated number of personnel as ``criminal investigators'' for years.

Those who are designated as ``criminal investigators'' receive additional compensation and are afforded the right to retire early.

H.R. 719 will put an end to these abuses by requiring the Inspector General to approve the method used by TSA to designate personnel as criminal investigators. It also requires TSA to certify to Congress that only those individuals performing the requisite criminal investigation work are designated as ``criminal investigators''.

According to the Inspector General, properly classifying individuals within TSA's Office of Inspection could save taxpayers as much as $17 million over five years.

During Committee consideration of this measure last Congress, I offered an amendment on behalf of Representative Loretta Sanchez that addresses revelations about how some within TSA's Federal Air Marshal Service exploited relationships with private vendors to obtain discounted or free firearms.

Specifically, in April 2014, the Committee became aware that the former director of the Federal Air Marshal Service bought several guns from an employee who is under investigation for using his position to obtain free and discounted firearms.

Unfortunately, TSA was less than forthcoming with Congress regarding this investigation, leaving many questions unanswered about how the investigation was conducted and the number of FAMs officials involved.

The exploitation of official relationships for personal gain is a serious matter.

Such misuse occurring within the Federal Air Marshal Service, the Law Enforcement component within TSA is unacceptable.

To address the lack of transparency regarding the investigation, the Committee accepted language I offered to require TSA to provide information and materials associated with the Office of Inspection's review of the allegations to Congress.

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