Pervasive misconduct by Transportation Security Administration employees is threatening the security of airline travel, according to a new House Homeland Security Committee report.
Despite efforts to curb the bad, sometimes criminal behavior, complaints of misconduct have grown by more than 29 percent from fiscal 2013 to 2015, the six-month investigation conducted by the GOP majority on the panel found.
While the number of misconduct allegations have increased, TSA continues to lack a process to adequately address the complaints and the number of investigations into the misconduct has actually decreased with fewer disciplinary actions against employees taken, according to the report.
“Growing misconduct across TSA’s ranks and TSA’s lack of accountability is alarming and unacceptable,” said Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the panel’s oversight subcommittee.
“Every American should be outraged from this finding,” he said. “We’re in the highest threat environment since 9/11 and terrorists are intent on attacking civil aviation, as we’ve seen in Brussels and Istanbul. TSA needs significant and lasting reforms to address its employee misconduct crisis.”
Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., who chairs the transportation security subcommittee that co-authored the report, said the vast majority of TSA employees are hardworking and dedicated, but that work is “too often undermined by a lack of management support for those willing to speak out against wrongdoing, as well as fellow employees who abuse the position of trust afforded to them.”
While allegations related to attendance and leave made up nearly half of the allegations in fiscal 2015, other misconduct included a wide range of criminal offenses, including charges of bribery, drug and human smuggling, as well as cocaine use on the job, sexual assault and child pornography activities.
“The ever-evolving threat landscape and increased concern about the insider threat to aviation underscores the need for a capable aviation security workforce to detect nefarious activity,” the report concludes.
The committee commended TSA Administrator Pete Neffenger for instituting some reforms, but said it is unclear whether the next administration will fully implement them.
It recommended 17 reforms for the TSA to implement to try to curb the misconduct, including streamlining the misconduct process by having one senior executive in charge of it.
Five entities within TSA have responsibility for some part of the misconduct process, but “no one senior official or office at headquarters has been clearly designated as responsible for overseeing misconduct issues,” the report states.
“There needs to be significant, lasting and meaningful reform from the top to the bottom of the agency,” Perry said. “Every minute the TSA is forced to handle misconduct is one less than they are spending on protecting travelers.”
