A government watchdog for the Transportation Security Agency told Congress on Tuesday that TSA has once again failed a round of secret tests of airport security.
Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General John Roth admitted to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he has been harsh before on the TSA’s ability to run a competent security operation. But he said the TSA had not made any real improvements in the latest round of testing in September.
“While I cannot talk about the specifics in this setting, I am able to say … that the test results were disappointing and troubling,” Roth said in his prepared remarks.
“The failures included failures in the technology, failures in TSA procedures and human error,” he said. “We found layers of security simply missing. It would be misleading to minimize the rigor of our testing, or to imply that our testing was not an accurate reflection of the effectiveness of the totality of aviation security.”
“We ran multiple tests at eight different airports of different sizes, including large category X airports across the country, and tested airports using private screeners as part of the Screening Partnership Program,” he added, referring to the nation’s major airports. “The results were consistent across every airport.”
Roth has said the culture within the TSA has been to ignore problems raised by the IG. He said the TSA has “resisted oversight” and was unwilling to change.
But he said new leadership at TSA may be changing that, and said as a start, TSA has acknowledged its recent failures.
“We may be in a very different place than we were in May,” he said.
“[W]ithin 24 hours of receiving preliminary results of OIG covert penetration testing, the secretary summoned senior TSA leadership and directed that an immediate plan of action be created to correct deficiencies uncovered by our testing,” Roth added.
