Certifies equipment. And have some kind of recognition if europes already certified something, then maybe theres a less vigorous process that can be done here. Maybe theres some reciprocal arrangement. Because that really is critical to getting things done. Does the instability of the leadership in t. S. A. , whether or not there is indeed an alignment between longterm plan, longterm need, and longterm budgeting, does that affect the rolling out of technology that you see in other in other airports, thats already vidence based. Mrs. Brooks the shifting emphasis, whether the recession developments or something is seen as critical and important in the roll out of new technologies. Yes, that probably does have an m pact given one administrator to the next may have very different views about how fast these things need to happen. We certainly had some very good experiences with the previous administration. Thank you. This is actually from president cox. According to media reports, Airline Crews have been caught up in the president s recent travel ban, specifically Airline Crew Members from seven countries referenced in the executive order are now prohibited from entering this country. Despite having approved u. S. Entry visas. Some crew members have been detained and carriers have had to shift staff away from the u. S. Routes to prevent additional crew members from being affected. According to the International Air transportation association, the executive order was issued without prior coordination, warning, causing confusion among both airlines and travelers. They also placed additional burdens on airlines to comply with unclear requirements to bear implementation costs and to face potential penalties for noncompliance. What does the travel ban executive order say about the importance of d. H. S. Consulting and coordinating with partners like carriers, airports, and travel industry, stakeholders, and employees in the development, implementation of the Security Policy . Ill start with you, and ask you, mr. Cox, to respond. And then i will say thank you to my chairman. We respect and appreciate the president s concern for safety of america. That said, we need to find a way to end the confusion and the chaos that it has created, and we urge them to get through this quickly, these 90 days, because there is a great deal of misunderstanding that was caused, and i think its very important to have everybody in the loop as we work through these things. Mr. Dow we understand and respect the need for security, but we also need to make sure that the world knows clearly hat were doing. I think theres been a great deal of confusion. Clearly a. F. G. Proudly represents the National Border patrol throughout the country. And the comments and feedback that i have had from those agents is basically confusion of not knowing exactly what to do at airports. And that that has sort of focused resources away, particularly from our southern border, where we worry strongly about drug cartels and those that are into Human Trafficking and many things that are very, very harmful that clearly most people coming into airports have met the proper visa requirements and have the proper paperwork. We always want to prevent against anyone coming into this country to do harm to the American Public. Chairman katko, let me just say when we think of our safety and security, we think of our intelligence community, our f. B. I. , and things that have nature, and we wouldnt privatize them. With regard to travelers, i think that thats the same level of security were expecting and hoping for. While we can use the best technologies in the world, i believe that those who take an oath to uphold our constitution and work as employees of our work force are the ones that should be making sure that were safe and secure at airports. Thank you. With that i appreciate your indulgence. Mr. Katko thank you, mrs. Watson coleman. I note as matter of practice the Ranking Member will have more flexibility with respect to time moving forward. Unfortunately given the growing list of people here today, we will not be able to grant all of you as much flexibility. We ask you to stick as close as you can. The chairman recognizes mr. Higgins, gentleman from louisiana, first welcome to congress. We welcome you to this committee, mr. Higgins. The floor is yours. Mr. Higgins thank you, mr. Chairman. Question for mr. Dow. Sir, if we can move to Airport Security overall, id like to ask you about your opinions regarding the vetting and supervision of airport employees that have regular access to aircraft and luggage and cargo. Theres a great deal of emphasis being placed upon the screening of travelers. Ose of us that fly regularly wonder, what is the level of screening being given to the employees that have access to the aircraft that were entering . And to our luggage and cargo that travel as well. Give us some feedback, please, on the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of Premises Security at United States airports. Mr. Dow first of all, we believe that everyone who has access to the air Transportation System has to be properly vetted and screened. Thats back of the house employ back of the airport employees, pilots, everyone has to do that. You asked a question also on how important it is to last part of your question i dropped i apologize. Mr. Higgins your overall assessment of the vulnerabilities or weakness of airport Perimeter Security. Mr. Dow thats very important area because as we have seen a couple of problems that we have had around the world have been outside the screening area. And i think its extremely important that we put measures in there, whether it be presence of security, security practices, but we have to be careful we dont move t. S. A. Out to the beginning of the highway getting to the airport. So many airports are so difficult to get through. We have to have systems, people have to know were watching those areas. But Perimeter Security is important, but we do not want to move the checkpoint to the road approaching the airport, which would be a total disaster. Its a high priority, and we have to address it. Mr. Higgins yes, sir. Im wondering what level of coordination t. S. A. Has with Airport Police and to address these matters of the safety of the aircraft and travelers. Just as Ranking Member said of having everybody involved, i think its very important that local police, Airport Police, and security and our secret Service People all work in conjunction to put. Mr. Dow in your state i have seen a tremendous amount of cooperation between the state police, city police, and new orleans, which is very important. I think its important. It can be done. You can get everyone working together. Mr. Higgins thank you, sir. And generally speaking nationwide, are you seeing that level of cooperation in other states . Mr. Dow it vare russ. You have seen one airport, you have seen one airport. Its becoming more and more important and all our airport directors have it on their radar that we need to look not only at security checkpoints but understand and have a place plan in place for Perimeter Security. Mr. Higgins thank you, mr. Dow. Mrs. Brooks, mr. Cox, thank you for your t i yield. Mr. Katko the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Payne. Mr. Payne thank you, mr. Chairman. And to the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. Its really an honor and privilege to have her join this committee that has really done great work and worked in a bipartisan manner over the course of the time that i have been involved. Looking forward to continuing that work. Mr. Dow, in your testimony you discussed implementing improvements to the checkpoint experience. In your opinion, what are the most effective and pressing adjustments that should be made to the precheck process in order to encourage greater participation among trusted populations without sacrificing the security of all the passengers . Mr. Dow very good question, mr. Payne. Thank you. On the precheck pros serks number one we have to get more people in the program. We have millions of people who have been vetted very deeply from a secure standpoint. We should figure out how to get those people in the program. Second thing, coy apply for a mortgage and get an answer in 40 seconds. We should be able to have people apply for precheck and get a very quick answer going through all the security processes. If we do that that will help. We have to, as i said earlier, promote more. If i owned t. S. A. , i would put a lot of dollars behind promoting and getting another 10 million or 15 million in this program. That would raise over 1 billion. We need to promote, we need to have a good process. We have to be able to sign people up and it has to be a priority. It has not been a big enough priority whether it be with congress or a loft people to get people in this program. You and i are not going to blow up an airport. Bottom line, we should figure out how to get more of us in this program. Mr. Payne thank you, sir. Whatbrooks mrs. Brooks, the s can you give for lack of innovation here in the states as opposed to other jurisdictions where you have seen this technology implemented . You know, we hear in america, like to pride ourselves being on the cutting edge, and in so many instances i find were lacking in areas. Can you give me some context on why you think we are where we are . Ms. Brooks well, i think the innovation actually isnt lacking. Its happening in the labs. T. S. A. Is doing a lot of really good work in looking at new technologies and some of the things that were starting to see rolled out now in airports, for example, in atlanta, is actually getting toward some of that innovation but i think it comes to getting it out there more quickly and, again, it comes down to there has to be Adequate Funding to get that technology tested, certified and rolled out into the airports. Mr. Payne well, i mean, you know, i get concerned sometimes about, you know, us trying to reinvent the wheel. If theres something, you know, thats working at heathrow, you know, my pride isnt going to keep me from saying, well, hey, how are you doing that . How are you implementing that . I just dont understand, you know, the lag time in finding technology that is moving us rward and advancing and, you know, getting to the airports in a timely manner if its working there. Ms. Brooks i think the collaboration that we have now with t. S. A. Is critical. I really hope with the new administrator Going Forward we are exchanging good information with t. S. A. And have very good discussion about the technology, the research, the trials, the process thats happening both in the u. S. And in the rest of the world. So i think theres a lot we can learn from each other and i really hope that continues Going Forward because weve seen a big difference in the last couple years. Mr. Payne thank you. President cox, its good to have you here again. We respect the work of the men and women at t. S. A. The t. S. O. s are really on the front line and we have to make sure that we some of us in the ess make sure that traveling public and people in this country understand the difficult work being on the front lines every single day that our t. S. O. s are and really raise their profile and respect in this country for the work that they do. 3,300 weapons that they found, nd thats just firearms. On january 23, President Trump signed an executive order initiating a federal hiring freeze. T. S. O. s are federal employees. Have you received any guidance from the administration on whether or not this hiring freeze will affect t. S. O. s . President cox i have not, sir. Its our understanding there is a hiring freeze for all of Homeland Security at this point. I may be wrong with that. Its changed by the moment, but its our understanding there is a hiring freeze for t. S. A. And other departments inside of Homeland Security. Mr. Payne well, i think some type of correspondence should go out to the administration in terms of maybe looking at that freeze in this area, making sure that the traveling public is safe, should not be something thats curtailed. U said youre down 5,000 t. S. O. s. President cox about 5,000 less than there was several years ago. Mr. Payne i really think thats something that needs to be addressed and hopefully through this committee we can do so and with that i yield back. Thank you, mr. Payne. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Keating. Mr. Keating thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome to the new Ranking Member and the staff. Its great to be here. You know, one of the things that concerns me generally is the fact were doing this in the lens of terrorist attack which we should and peoples safety personally. However, theres another target for these attacks and thats our economy and its the economy of an industry, its the economy of the countries that are affected by this. So i want to thank mr. Dow for the dialogue that the chairman and i participated in and the close relationship with this committee. I think its very important from an interest standpoint you do that. President cox, i tell you, i fly a lot. The attitude of the people on the front line that are there is extraordinary. The helpfulness. Ive really been impressed by that. Its a tough job. But ive seen a high level of helping people even when they re perhaps doing some things we should prevail against. I want to delve on a couple of issues. Number one, mr. Dow, mrs. Brooks, enhancing precheck, we touched on that. How do we come to terms with the airlines themselves being helpful . I mean, the idea of, for instance, being able to exchange maybe some frequent flyer miles in exchange for a precheck status, is that something thats been explored . How are businesses that have people that work for them, are they stepping up more . Have you seen a trend to make sure their companies and employees have precheck paid for them by the companies and what can we do to expand that, you know, to greater extent, even . Mr. Dow well, two things, mr. Keating. Thank you for all your engagement on this issue. Youve been an expert on this issue. I appreciate it. You mentioned the economy. When september 11 happened, the air travel industry came to its knees in 45 minutes. The u. S. Economy followed in about 30 days. The World Economy followed about two months. So the length between travel and economy is so clear. When you ask about t. S. A. Precheck, we would like to see all of those things happen. Some companies have stepped out and pay for their employees. Google. Some of the Tech Companies have done that. But we need to get the ability to use the frequent flyer miles. Enterprise rentacar is doing that. Mr. Rokita so people can make the mr. Keating so people can make the tradeoff. Mr. Dow it allows more t. S. O. Resources to look for the folks that we dont know a lot about and so we got to make it a high proor the. Mr. Keating theres one other sorry to interrupt. One area where they could make the tradeoff and will help anyone that travels. The extra charge for the baggage. I see so many slowups as a result of people just struggling to get the extra bag on so they are not charged with it. Maybe theres something they can do with frequent flyer miles and the extra charge for baggage, too, because that slows things down and i think it makes security a a lot hotter as well. Just my thought. Mr. Dow i wish someone from the airlines could speak with you also on that. Thank you. Mr. Keating thank you. Mr. Cox, one thing im worried about, talking about the freeze and the freeze will have an effect because you are going to lose some good recruits that will give up. When people see a freeze and theyre already working in a tough job like that, they are going to quit. You are going to lose some very valuable people along the lines. But also, i think training is important as anything else. Ive seen it in so many other areas. Ive seen it in major cities, you know, with the uwasi training, how crossprofessionalization. With soft targets being more and more of a concern, thats what we saw in istanbul, in brucele, its what we saw in fort lauderdale. That training will be more valuable. Training with local police and the people that are there for Airport Security. Do you see a need for further funding for that training yourself with your personnel . Mr. Cox yes, sir. Theres clearly a need for more training, and i think you touched on it very nicely. There are more people that work in an airport than just the screening employees. Theres the vendors, the airline employees, the passengers. Theres lots of personnel in airports. Theyre almost a city onto themselves. You have to have training for all those individuals thats working in those facilities every day. And to play on some things, the chair, mr. Dow and you have said, i think were talking about infrastructure. Infrastructure that would improve the economy because we that re people to travel, we move them through faster, all these things that will help our economy. I think investing in better equipment, investing in the human resources, all of that will do great things for our economy. So im excited to see Congress Talk about improving the infrastructure. Mr. Keating i do think i have seen some of the new technology myself, and thats not replacing peoples jobs. Thats being able to shift people to other jobs which are important, too, so i yield back. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Keating. There being no more witnesses, we dont have time for another time because i have a hard stop in such a short period of time. I want to ask you somewhat conventional since we have a few minutes here. Is there anything you three witnesses wanted to say that you didnt have an opportunity to say briefly that you wanted to touch on before we conclude . Mr. Dow i think one thing thats important is engage the airports. Many airports are in favor of s. P. P. I think its very important that t. S. A. Take a look at the main mission of security and keeping us safe and bringing the technology and the folks from the airports because they can add on facilitation, on equipment, on k9s, and i think we have to have a better marriage of the folks that run the airports and t. S. A. Mr. Katko i couldnt agree with more on that. An example was last summer when some administrative glitches helped contribute greatly to the wait lines at the airports. When they started talking from the airlines and airports, those lines were alleviated. Working collaboratively with the folks on the front line. I thank you for noting that. Mr. Chairman, could i have unanimous consent for one comment . Mr. Katko absolutely. I want to point out with the help of the committee here we passed in the house just this week a bill that will take the g. A. O. Study about looking at the uniqueness of the design of every airport into consideration with our safety plan. So we have moved forward as a committee taking some of that. Im sorry, mr. Chairman. Mr. Katko i appreciate you making that. Anyone else before we conclude . Mr. Chairman, i have to say this with all honesty, i think particularly this subcommittee has a great chairman. Mr. Cox a great Ranking Member. Mr. Katko i agree. Mr. Cox and i mean it from the bottom of my heart because you work together. You want to find solutions. Its easy to constantly identify problems. The American People are looking for solutions. Employees are looking for solutions. Government does lots of good things that helps this country operate and helps the private industry operate. So i am excited about this congress and this subcommittee. I will work with you and afge works with the two of you in any way we can to find solutions to help our economy and keep us all safe. Mr. Katko thank you, mr. Cox. I appreciate the kind words. We do try and dispense with Party Loyalties and to do the right thing to keep the American Public safe and keep this system humming and also make it better. Thats our job. Hopefully we can stand as an example what others in congress can do when they put down their swords. So mrs. Brooks, before we wrap up, would you like to say anything . Ms. Brooks yes, just briefly. I want to underscore mr. Dows point that engagement with the airports, engagement with other industry parties is absolutely critical. Where we have seen the best results i am not just talking about technology, human factors, the screening checkpoints, all of that, it works best when theres strong collaboration between industry and the regulators. So that would be my probably my key message. Mr. Katko thank you, ms. Brooks. I want to thank all the folks here today. When the situation permits itself as a matter of course Going Forward we will have a little more flexibility in how we conduct the hearings like we did today. I cant guarantee its always going to be like that. I will signal certainly to mrs. Watson coleman how were doing it. We have a structure we follow but when we can deviate from the good of the order to get a more full hearing, were going to do that if we can. Id like to thank the witnesses for their thoughtful testimony and members of the committee may have some additional questions for the witnesses and we have we will ask you respond to these in writing. The hearing record will be open for 10 days. Without objection, the subcommittee stands adjourned. Thank you, all. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the u. S. House of representatives is in recess now until noon eastern. The house today will start debate on two bills repealing federal regulations passed during the obama administration. One of those regulations requires the Social Security administration to notify the background check system for gun buyers, about people who are on disability because of mental illness. Also, a regulation requiring Government Contractors to provide notice when they violate state or federal labor laws. The house will vote on repealing both of those regulations today. Also, the u. S. House today will begin work on but they will not vote until tomorrow work on repealing a regulation that requires oil and gas drillers to control methane releases into the atmosphere. Methane is a Greenhouse Gas that contributes to climate change. When the house returns to session, we will have live coverage here on cspan. Until then, a discussion from this mornings washington journal on efforts to overturn President Trumps travel ban. L continues. Host we are back this morning with commerce and steve congressman steve cohen. Lets begin with what is called , the president did by executive order. Tell us your position on it. Rep. Cohen it is unnecessary and political. Want to become president , you need to govern, you do not need to continue to campaign and this is not making