Youre on. Caller great points. I think part of the problem is were used to going short wars. We get in, get out, and surprising or not we get peace with the countries we were warring with five years ago. Amazing. Not too many nations have that record. We have our hands in the tar baby, a thousand or two thousand year war which is completely different than the wars we get into usually. The other problem we have is after, with korea vietnam, we had two countries with changes in equation completely. Before, war was fought to the end. Who was bigger, badder. Now we have a different we cant just pull our big weapons out and solve it. The other thing is, it was a gift because we can use it for peace, a lot of peace that can come from it. And the good gift from world war ii which i hate to even say it was that people realized the world could be screwy. They knew it was going to be screwy they raised their families and said were going to do what we can do to keep the world right. Guest i think rich is exactly right in terms of the paradigm that weve been using. From about 1989, maybe the first gulf war panama was another example. We had this short war paradigm. First off, the paradigm wasnt about war. It was about battles. The battle for panama lasted pretty quickly. The battle for kuwait lasted pretty quickly. We didnt really wage any wars. We fought really good battles. That paradigm cannot apply to this yet we tried. We tried in afghanistan. We thought well get rid of the taliban and then hand off the tough part to nato. And in iraq well take down sad am and well hand off to i dont know. So part of the learning that should have been taking place from 2002 and 2003 and 2004 on is that our paradigm for short wars is the incorrected paradigm. Our leaders had talked about this in 2003 2004, we werent listening. This war you have to fight the war that youre in. Not the one that you want. We all like short wars. Host don from oak ridge nuge. Caller good morning. I have a comment regarding saub. Why arent the saudis willing to fight . And i mean by putting mab power. I think you would agree they have more at stake than this country does than america does. And its well known that they have one of the strongest or at least that they have invested more in military power than most other countries in the world. Is it possible that they are playing both ends genls the middle in this situation . Guest well, if they were, they arent the only ones. Iran is playing both ends against the middle the claim that iran is pumping money into a taliban. Now theres both ends against the middle. I think saudi arabia should do more. But from my view, its a matter of structuring an actual coalition. And saudi arabia should be a big member of that coalition. So far we have treated coalitions what some have called posses. An American Sheriff rides up and says who is with me . A bunch of countries say i will g with you and ride off following the American Sheriff. Thats not a coalition. A coalition decides what its common aims, strategies, policies. How will we as a coalition make decision as the war adapts . Wreff yet to structure a coalition like that. When we do, i think we might see Saudi Arabia Join and make a commitment because they will conclude that we are serious. If you remember in the beginning of the iraq war the saudis said to the said to us, look, dont do this unless youre into it. Well, were going to be into it. Well we left. So the saudis have to come along with this and we have to be part of this coalition as well. Guest general, a senior fellow at the institute of war. You can check out more on his on the next washington journal, reaction to Hillary Clintons campaign announcement. And Heather Conley talks about president obamas meeting last week and whether the sanctions against russia are working. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Tomorrow coverage of commencement speeches continues with Governor Greg Abbott at north texas university. Eric swalwell of california and u. S. Attorney preet bharara. Here is Governor Abbott talking about the uncertainty he faced as a young man after in left him paralyzed. Governor abbott i dont have a clue who spoke at my graduation ceremony. I seem to recall some cliched advice about how the future was going to be filled with challenges. Little did i know how prophetic the speaker was because little did i know as i walked across the stage that day to get my diploma, that picture would be the last picture of me walking. After graduating, i moved to houston where i took a job. After a few weeks of living, i went out for a jog. A huge tree crashed onto my back , crushing my vertebrae into my spinal cord and leaving me forever paralyzed, unable to walk again. I see some of you shaking your heads. You are wondering how slow was he jogging to get hit by a falling tree . [laughter] during months of rehabilitation, i realized the future i had planned in college and law school, all of the dreams i had worked for and took for granted work on an instant were gone in an instant. Everything had changed. But i found after that, and going on and piecing my life together, becoming a lawyer, becoming a judge and an attorney general and now governor i realize our lives dont have to be defined by our circumstances. [applause] watch cspans coverage of commencement speeches tomorrow at 7 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Next, the Senate Confirmation hearing for administrator of the transportation Security Administration. An education under secretary ted mitchell and Lamarr Alexander on the cost of higher education. After that, Hillary Clinton opens her campaign with a rally in new york city. Wednesday, the vice admiral testified on his nomination to become the head of the transportation Security Administration. He currently serves as the vice commandant of the coast guard. This is one hour 20 minutes. This hearing will come to order. We welcome the admiral and we appreciate your willingness to serve considering your nomination for the position to Security Administration we had an interesting hearing yesterday and i thank you come into this position understanding you have significant challenges ahead of you and we are looking forward to the hearing today. Were looking forward to your oral testimony and answers to our questions. I will hold off on further comments. We will also consider the Postal Service. Another agency which will require a lot of the box thinking so i just want to thank both nominees for your willingness to serve in that i turn it over to the Ranking Member. Thank you for your service , 34 years. You have anybody with your family here today . Ok. Some brief comments thank you for joining us yesterday also in take the measure of a man, as we say in delaware. As we have learned from press reports as well as numerous briefings yesterday, the tsa faces serious challenges. The president has nominated in you, admiral, someone who can provide tsa with the kind of leader that we need. We know in the coast guard, you have served since 1982. Throughout your career in the coast guard, you have displayed leadership skills and the ability to confront problems head on. He served as the commander over the deepwater horizon spill. As inspector john roth said to this committee, he said tsa needs people can face the challenges facing this agency and someone who will strive for perfection, and while addressing the competing priorities of security. We want to make sure we are flying planes that are safe, and we want to make sure we can expedite their movement through checkpoints. Often times they are in conflict, so it is not an easy job. We are grateful for the people who do this work and want to make sure they are meeting their challenges and that we are providing the support and leadership they need. I have the opportunity to meet with admiral neffenger recently. I came away confident he is the right person for the job. Following our discussion, we will consider david schapiro, here on the front row. To serve as government on the board of governors. It is a challenging time for the Postal Service. As Albert Einstein said, adversity provides opportunity. A lot of opportunity it employs millions of people and even as firstclass mail is lost to other forms of communication the future is more promising than some would believe. Advertising mail is a popular option for millions, thousands of mailers millions of people like to receive their magazines in the mail every week. They like to have a printed copy. Not just the stuff on the internet. Ecommerce is booming, making the post office a vital partner. Even competitors rely on it because they go to Rural Communities around the country fedex and ups dont always go the last five or 10 miles. The Postal Service is happy to do that. I look forward to talking to mr. Schapiro about what you think needs to be done in order to address the ongoing challenges and the skills and experiences he will bring to the board. As the leader of a 10 billion company with 40,000 employees, mr. Schapiro will bring day unique business perspective that is needed and welcomed. If confirmed, he and other nominees would double the size of the board and we need that. I see an opportunity to make progress toward strengthening the Postal Service. I want to thank both of our nominees admiral, and hopefully we will be able to call him governor schapiro. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you. Thanks so much. Admiral, it is the tradition to swear witnesses in. Please rise and read your hand. Do you swear the testimony will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . Please be seated. Vice admiral Peter Neffenger has held various leadership positions. He served as the commander in los angeles, california, home to the largest port complex in the u. S. And he served as the common where he was responsible for operation throughout the five great lakes and secured 1500 miles of the border. He served as deputy instant commander during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. Admiral. Vice admiral neffenger i have submitted my statement. Good morning distinguished members of the committee, im privileged to appear before you today is the nominee to head to the Security Administration. Im honored by the call to service and be by the support of our department. I would like to thank the 50,000 men and women of the coast guard and the 30 thousand members of the auxiliary with whom ive served more than three decades and from whom ive learned lessons about service to the nation, commitment and duty to people and to the men and women of tsa, im honored to join your ranks and to serve along with you and the American People in securing our transportation systems. I have confidence in them and i will be honored to lead them. As tsa pursues solutions, there are several concepts that must be addressed. Tsa must ensure the measures are in place to drive a focus on the mission across the Agency Securing aviation. There must be a culture of evolution, when the questions assumptions and processes and is able to field new concepts of operations and new capabilities. Delivering an effective system will come through confidence, professionalism. It confirmed, i will pursue these objectives, to address the challenges and accomplish the Important Mission entrusted to tsa. Striking a balance between security and liberty is critical. I will take on this challenge with the Leadership Perspective that has been at the core of my leadership. Clear standards of Performance Training and resourcing to achieve success and a relentless pursuit of accountability. In my 34 years of active service, i have been assigned to a variety of positions culminating in my current can position in the coast guard. Each has brought more complex responsibilities and challenges and i will apply the skills i have gained and my experience in lawenforcement, Maritime Transportation and management of agencies to ensure the protection of our nations transportation systems. 14 years after 9 11, we must recognize the terrorist threat has evolved. Today it is more diffuse and complex. Certain groups remain intent on destroying in the United States and we know some of these groups are focused on commercial aviation. We have seen a threat from loan will factors. They are our most pressing challenge. Workforce training and accountability is the second challenge. I will pay close attention to the development of the workforce and examine how to use the tsa academy to instill an ever greater sense of pride in the agency and its mission. I will continue to focus on customer service. They deserve respect. The third challenge is ensuring tsa has the tools it needs. We must question ourselves evolve our capabilities and adapt faster than those who wish to harm us and the vision what comes next. If confirmed, i will commit myself to ensuring tsa remains a highly capable counterterrorism organization. The operations while placing a premium on professional values. And that tsa continues to strengthen its integration in intelligence with the private sector stakeholders, and among local partners. If confirmed, i will follow this strategy and adapt and invest appropriately. I believe i have a record of leading people i have a background in applying security principles to maritime threats principles that translate to other modes and i have a record of leading through crises. Finally i have remained aware of the need for balancing security with the liberties we cherish. If confirmed this will remain a top priority. I look forward to partnering with this committee to enhance the safety of the traveling public and achieve this balance. I think president obama for their confidence and thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Before i begin, it is the tradition of this committee to ask all nominees three questions. I will start with those. Is there anything you are aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest . Do you know of anything that would prevent you from discharging the responsibilities of the office . Do you agree to comply with any request to testify before any committee of congress . Admiral, the hearing we had yesterday was reviewing. One of the things in my preparation for my hearing and during the hearing that was stark is the dual mission of tsa. On the one hand you have the need for efficiency that we move through the test zone, so the public is not impatient. And we are looking for 100 security. Can you speak to the conflicting nature of those goals and how you would evaluate priorities . Vice admiral neffenger i would be happy to speak to that. The priority is always the mission. I have never lost sight of the fact it is about the safety and security of the people using Maritime Transportation. You still need to move goods and services through the systems. Aviation is no different. It is critical the move people efficiently. It is a balancing act between getting those right. If you focus on security, if you are transparent with the need for that security, a Security System creates inefficiency. We know that. The port environment was important to that. Before 9 11, the portes were wide open. You needed to move a lot of stuff, containers, cargo, the like. There is a lot of Access Points because you wanted to get trucks and rail and other services in and out. After 9 11, and we started to look at the attempts to sure that up, it was a challenge to do that without clogging up the system. You work with your private sector partners. They had a lot of good ideas. I think we can benefit from those ideas. It is no different in the aviation sector. There may be some need to introduce a few inefficiencies to address some of these recent findings. You have to do that very carefully with the airport. The people who are running the airlines. The people who operate the airport environment and the traveling public to explain why and then in the long term, you have to think about what the Security System looks like. It is going to take outofthebox thinking, what would the Security System look like if we designed it for tomorrow . It will always be a balance, but i dont think it is impossible. Or you surprised by the revelation that said there is a 90 failure rate to detect metal weapons and fake explosives . Vice admiral neffenger yes, sir. And it disturbs me. It is the immediate priority to address those findings to close those gaps. And then to look systemically at what the issues are that brought that fourth. You acknowledge that reality. Let me say there is some deterrent effect for those checkpoints, but do you acknowledge the fact it is not working . Vice admiral neffenger if i can talk in terms of how i view the Security System. It is a system. If i think about entering that system, from the moment i put my name into a reservation system, i want to know i am looked at in some way. Some of that is behind the scenes. I want my name scrutinized and i want to ensure the people who are doing that have access to the intelligence they need. I know some questions have been raised. I want that to be continuous and from the time i put my name into that system, i want to be looked at. I want things happening behind the scenes. I want other things as well. There are other ways you can scrutinize an individual. I want to know about the travelers moving through. Im a fan of known travelers programs. Im a member myself. I did that for a good reason so to move myself through the system and to participate in the system. Following that when i get to the airport, i like to know there are a number of things that might happen. If im a bad guy, i dont want to see a path through. I want every path to be unpredictable. I like the idea of layers, but i want to be sure they are effective. As a look at what tsa is doing, and they have layers that have been described to me, bomb sniffing dogs, other methods they use. I would like to understand the effectiveness behind that and how we ensure they are effective and how they overlap. If you can devise a system that overlaps in such a way, because you have to keep in mind what the threat is. Look at the things that are recommended by those who would do harm to the system and then go back immediately and question whether those layers are effective. So although disturbing and of great concern the findings are what you need to find out to determine whether your system is effective. Sen. Johnson employees behind the scenes, though security clearances, there is a report we are not matching up everybody to the potential watchlists. Is that something you will commit to so that every possible watchlist is utilized . Vice admiral neffenger yes, sir. That is an imperative. In the coast guard, we are a full member of the intelligence community. As we know, one of the findings of the 9 11 commission was the failure of intelligence communities to provide information to the people who need it. It is imperative tsa has that information. I would absolutely commit to that. Sen. Johnson senator carper. Senator carper secretary jeh johnson says you are the smartest officer he has met. He says he has met two. [laughter] but the answer you gave to the question, which led you to go through the layers, that was excellent. When you look at the report that 95 of the failure rate somebody attempts to try to pierce the system and they succeeded. They were successful. If you go back over 10 years, it has been about a decade. We measure success with a lot of metrics. One of them is how many airplanes have been taken down. How many people died because of explosions. That is something we need to keep in mind. Someone uses say to me, remember this, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. For us it is making sure people can get where they need to go safely and expeditiously. I want to talk about agency morale. My colleagues have heard me before. I used to say to my cabinet trying to work out a problem, i would say some other governor has done it. We need to find him or her and see if that is transferable for us. When you look at agency more out, the coast guard, as i recall, has high morale is measured by our common metric. To help improve that morale of the folks at tsa . Vice admiral neffenger thanks for that question. You are right. The coast guard does have a high more out. To me it begins with a sense of mission and importance and then a leadership that invests in the people who are performing that mission. You have to have alignment. If you say the mission is important, and then measure other things, a clear sense of mission and i think tsa has a great mission. It is an Important Mission. I see no problem making that a clear statement. You have to train your workforce. It cant be onetime training. It is continuous. If you want a learning organization, you have to have training. And take advantage of what those frontline people can tell you. Some of the best innovations have come from the people on the front lines. I tell people i represent the coast guard. The coast guard, and those men and women out in those units during the work, that is no different from the tsa itself. The transportation security officers, that is the face of tsa and the mission. You need to train them and empower them and then you need to listen to them when they are telling you where they are failing and where seizures or the like arent allowing them to meet mission. You have to value that workforce. You need to have their backs. I had a great opportunity to sit down over at reagan airport as part of my briefings in preparing for this visit. They were very frank. And they understand the mission. I remember they are among the very few who said i swear to support and defend the constitution against all enemies. That is a powerful statement and i have found when you remind people of that, that begins the upward movement. You have to have accountability across the workforce because the people who are performing well know those who arent. If you allow that inconsistency to exist, it is not long before people feel like you dont have their back and you are not serious. You invest in the people, you train them you communicate clear standards and one of the things you grow up with in the military is an understanding you have to talk to your workforce. They do the work. My job is to provide them with the training and standards to do it and have their back when they have challenges and to look for ways to empower them to do their job. Sen. Carper you said for the coast guard, you learned lessons about leadership. I was going to ask you to talk about some of them. You have. Think about that question, the most important element for success is leadership. Talk about why you think you have been successful as a leader. Vice adm. Neffenger as i said, parents was luck. I did have great parents. I have been fortunate to work alongside some dedicated people. It is a privilege when you serve alongside people who want to do the best they can. I want to try to do the hard jobs. I dont know how to get it done, but we will figure it out. That is challenging. Growing an Organization Helps you learn about leadership. There are good examples and bad examples. The best leadership is the side to side leadership, the people working with you. I have learned it starts with being trained to do the mission and knowing the people around you are trained and if somebody is not performing, they will be held to account. That is important. A leader with a strong vision of where you are going. What is the job . What are we trying to do . Somebody who understands that, how to take the best of people strengths and combine them in a way that presents an opportunity to succeed, and evaluate how that was conducted and pursue that perfection you talked about in your opening comments. Knowing that you just might find excellence in the process. Engaging work the workforce, listening to what they have to say, and carry that through every level. Sen. Carper i think we just received an excellent tutorial on leadership. Thank you. Senator ernst. Senator ernst im going to be in and out. I will be at both places. Thank you, chairman johnson. Admiral, thank you for being here today and for your service. Im very impressed. Youve done an excellent job. I want to address something that senator carper brought up yesterday during our hearing. He asked the witnesses to provide a device to congress in addressing the problems discussed earlier. In response, an employee raised concerns about the lack of oversight with respect to numerous contracts and she suggested results in these numerous contracts, the results are there are difficulties ensuring efficient use of taxpayer dollars. This is important for me and many of us and so im going to be introducing legislation to promote the importance of Program Management throughout the federal government. If you are confirmed, how would you address the issues raised in regards to the numerous contracts and obligations . Vice adm. Neffenger ive had a lot of experience overseeing contracts and looking at how they are put in place. In my current role on the component acquisition, a horrible title that means im responsible for the ways we spend money to buy things or to hire people to help us. The coast guard, our contracting is spent in the area of i. T. Services and financial management. You have to look at that carefully. Contracting can be used appropriately. You have to have strong controls in place. Not just at Program Management level, people who are trained but you have to have a process. Im a substance guy, but unless you have good process, substance doesnt occur. How do i generate the requirements for why im hiring a contractor . How do i reviewed those requirements on a regular basis . How do i explain those requirements to the potential contractors that are going to bid . Are they tight enough they can be controlled . What is my ongoing oversight so i understand that contract is meeting my requirements . What is my exit strategy if it is not working . There is a lot more to that process, as you know. You really have to look from front to end. If confirmed, one of the things i need to do is look at not just the way the resources are expended, but how effective they have been because it can be an invisible world if youre not careful. Sen. Ernst i appreciate the fact you have experience with contracting, Program Management, and logistics. So thank you. One other question as well, i know tsa has committed to supporting a number of our veterans in hiring veterans. Veterans make up a large portion of positions within the tsa such as transportation security officers. As they are uniquely qualified for these civilian positions, is there even more that can be done at the tsa to recruit more of our veterans . Vice adm. Neffenger that is a wonderful question. I will tell you i agree with you that our veterans provide a wonderful potential source of employment. These are people who know what it means to serve and accomplish that mission. If confirmed i will look at how that is being done and look for opportunities to take advantage of that increase it where possible. Sen. Ernst very good. Very briefly, we did have some questions about the pretext program that came out yesterday. We heard a lot from a number of the different witnesses that expressed concern about the pretext program and how it is being expanded too much. Could you address some of the ideas you might have to make sure we are properly vetting those travelers . Just to make sure we are not handing them out like candy. Vice adm. Neffenger i think properly vetting is important. I believe in a trusted population. The more you can know about a population, the more comfortable i am. Im a fan of vetting people going into precheck and i think the goal should have a fully vetted population. There have been challenges with respect to enrollment centers. That is the one thing i want to look at, how this can be expanded to make the entry into that system more accessible and more available. The goal should be to move toward a precheck population that is a known population and is one that is expanded based upon that rule set. Sen. Ernst i appreciate your testimony today and look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you. Senator sass admiral, thank you for your past service. The committee asked you if you believe tsa is fulfilling its aviation responsibilities. You did not directly answer but said you would ensure tsa remains focused on its core mission. Do you believe tsa is laser focused . Vice adm. Neffenger that is the question given the results of the investigation. I believe there are good layers of security. Clearly there are some challenges, particularly with respect to the equipment. I want to provide you with a true and complete answer to that question. The immediate task is to get the full results of the investigation and any internal work that has done because they have their own inspection team. Are they finding the same things . How much of that is linked up . What can be done immediately to mitigate those gaps . And then going back to a comment i made previously, looking at the entire system and whether there are any gaps in the other layers tsa has in place. The system determines its effectiveness in addition to those individual components such as the equipment the ig found. Sen. Sasse i appreciate the layering peas, but do you think the tsa is succeeding . Vice adm. Neffenger i travel a lot. I traveled to the west coast. I felt safe. I want to know if that feeling was a good feeling to have. And based upon the findings, clearly there is a problem the way people are being screened because the screening equipment did not work. It occurred at a number of airports. I would need to look at how that has been done across the system and what we have done to mitigate that. Can it be safe . Sen. Sasse we were at a classified briefing. I know youre trying to do your homework. For those of us pushing on these issues, im not surprised by the 96 issue because there are other reports we cant reveal in this setting. You are not answering the question whether you think tsa is succeeding or failing. Vice adm. Neffenger i appreciate it where you are going. I think there are aspects of the system that do work. I want to know is how well they work and some of the secure flight checking, some of the namebased checking is working. I dont know how effective it is. I need to dig in deeper. Ive had a number of three things. Some of what ive heard is reassuring. Some is disturbing. Sen. Sasse without revealing details, do you believe the public has a right to know more about tsas failings . Vice adm. Neffenger im a fan of transparency in government, making clear to people how effective government is, how its performance is, and what we do about it when it does not live up to standards. I am a fan of that. Im not a fan of giving away secrets to our enemies or exposing vulnerabilities that we know exist. That is a delicate line, but i dont want to give any comfort to those who would harm us or help. Sen. Sasse i dont either. My call is to declassify more of the information and for the president to come clean about how badly tsa is failing, with the caveat we should not include a roadmap to the terrorists. One of the main benefits of tsa has been the deterrent benefit of people who believed it was functioning much more than we know it to be. Politico said you would be leading a herculean turnaround. Is that is what required . Vice adm. Neffenger first of all, a refocus on the basic mission. And an understanding this organization has to adapt. The day you think it is right is the day you will be defeated. One of the things you learn in the military is you question every assumption you have about your performance and you question it because somebody is going to be questioning you if you dont. If you dont question yourself, you are not staying ahead of the people who are questioning you. It does not surprise me people have found ways to defeat the system. What do you do about it . Sen. Sasse if youre going to fix the institution, we have to admit it is broken. Secretary johnson said tsa is the best model of riskbased security. He highlighted the precheck system. We know that they failed 96 of the time and we have 73 airport workers with links to terrorism. Im curious your sense of the history, how can we have these kind of lapses . Vice adm. Neffenger that is the question, senator. It is the question that made me say yes to taking this job. Because i travel. My family travels. I wanted to be safe. I care very deeply about the security of this nation. I want to be able to answer that question in an affirmative way. I want to say it is safe to do so. I dont know if it is right now. If confirmed, that is going to be my focus. What i promise is i will come back to this committee and i will lay out what i find. The challenges i find in a transparent way and where it requires doing so in a classified setting, we will do so. Sen. Sasse the turnaround will require admitting the failure. I wonder what letter grade you would give the tsa. Vice adm. Neffenger it may be premature to assign a letter grade. I will come back to you. I will tell you they are not where they need to be. Sen. Sasse i dont know any institution where a 4 success rate could be anything other than an f. The American People have a right to understand the issue more clearly. Sen. Johnson i do underscore your points. Coming from a manufacturing background, the first step is admitting you have a problem and then defining it. Admiral, i feel safe flying as well. Only because of the odds. 25,000 flights, what are the odds . The line of questioning is exactly right. We have to admit the problem and defined it. Senator ayotte. Senator ayotte appreciate your being here. You are a nominee for this important position as outlined today with the failures we have seen that the American People can expect so much better from tsa and so i appreciate your willingness to take this on. As you heard yesterday before this committee, what would you prioritize as the first thing you are going to do if confirmed . Vice adm. Neffenger i think that secretary johnson laid out a clear set of directions and i think my First Priority is to ensure those are carried out and the answer is he is demanding are found and they are extended to address the crisis. That is the important thing, to extort restore confidence, and to mitigate the vulnerabilities. And to look systemically across the organization to see how much it will it take to do this over time. Some of these things can be fixed right away. Others will take some time. Sen. Ayotte to the testimony we heard yesterday, that was quite disturbing with respect to the 73 airport workers that had links to terrorism and we were told in fact tsa was not fully vetting those employees against all of the information the fbi had in terms of those we had on terror watch lists. Here is my question, when i heard it yesterday, i heard we identified this problem in 2014 and then we went to the fbi and asked for information. Here we are in 2015. Something got urgent, there was not an immediate fix is disturbing. What i would ask of you, this committee and our oversight function, you find Something Like that that you dont wait for the bureaucracy to answer. You let us know and we make sure a fix like that that is so obvious and immediate so we dont have 73 airport workers with ties to terrorism. We find we are letting people fully and we fix something that is so obvious and dont let the bureaucracy blog us down. Will you commit if you find Something Like that you are not waiting for an answer for some other agency but will engage us to help you be effective in protecting the American Public . Vice adm. Neffenger i could not agree with you more on that issue. There are legislative fixes, i will come back to congress and request those fixes. In the meantime, the first thing am going to do is ensure we are connect did to those databases. As a member of the intelligence community, i understand the importance of connection. That was one of the key findings out of the 9 11 sen. Ayotte it was all about knowing the information and sharing it. Vice adm. Neffenger im in full agreement. Sen. Ayotte i appreciate that. You take on this very important task of leadership right now. This committee is very committed to having your back. If you find things that need to be fixed, if you find things, that are wrong that you need legislation, you need us to say to the administration this has to be a priority, we want to work with you to make sure we get this right. One thing i wanted to ask about we had testimony before the committee from whistleblowers. There were compelling, but what they went through is something we dont want to have happen where we have a culture where if you bring forward that information, you are either punish or swept aside. I would like a commitment that as you engage with the employees in the organization and you have those that come forward as whistleblowers or with information as to deficiencies, you will support them and make sure they have support so we can make sure we understand all of the problems and can address them. Vice adm. Neffenger i do commit to that. I believe in listening to your workforce and finding mechanisms to express their concerns with problems. I want to hear about it. I will tell you, if they dont feel there is any other way than to go outside the organization that is important. I dont believe there should be any punishment against an individual who finds that. These are people who took a note an oath. It takes a lot of courage to speak out and go outside your organization. We should listen and then we should not be afraid to tackle the challenges. Sen. Ayotte i was glad to hear you say you think in terms of free check, we need to ensure a fully vetted program and also the other issue i would ask you to look at is the badge issue. That has propped up where we know those badges behind the scenes, the access that is given in the airport. In fact, the system is one where the airports are controlling them. I would ask you to take a look at those badges to make sure we are not giving people access we should not be. Vice adm. Neffenger i will do that. Sen. Ayotte one final thing the other thing i took from the testimony yesterday was we have seen there are many s. O. P. s, but there seems a disconnect in application. Looking at whether it is a checklist or more consistent application, because it only takes one instant in terms of the checks that need to be in place to protect the country to allow a terrorist through. I wanted to get your perspective on that and what we should do to make sure there is consistency. Vice adm. Neffenger that is a great question and fundamental to how they perform the mission so it is all about Standard Operating Procedure so you can ensure your focused on the mission and. Those can be refined overtime to be straightforward and clear to have a consistent way to train to those standards whether through resident training or through teams that train or individual units. You have to have a way to determine if those standards are being adhered to. So in the coast guard my experience has been standardization in teams that go around and test it people are living up to the standards of to and including the Inspector General it is usually just a matter to what people through the procedures he will confront this situation so what is the procedure . A checklist can help where it is appropriate, but it is also an understanding of the process of you focus on the mission what do i need to do to accomplish the mission and what are the standards and the process and what can be done in the checklist fashion and then how do i pinscher it is done . How do i ensure it is done . Then do it again. I concur it is important to look at the current sops can you understand what you are reading . Does it make sense or reduce the things we ought to add . What i have discovered is you can become a slave to your sops and not be aware of the real process. Be careful not to just go through the motion but you need a thinking population. We get that all the time in the military then when somebody asks why then you say i have no idea. [laughter] senator langford . Sen. Langford thank you. Thank you for your past service and to take this on as a consideration for to have been asked to consider leading an agency right now that has very low morale morale, systemic problems, recent bad evaluations can use is the are wrong metrics the way they evaluate their own performance. That is not an easy thing to step into or uneasy assignment regard this so thank you for your consideration. And went to bounce a couple of issues off of you. Some of the metrics of evaluating the issue of conduct versus performance whether the goal is to quickly get people in line or for safety checks i think we can do both right now were pushing on the speed rather than safety like we put ourselves back to sleep on critical issues. How will you would just that with the valuation that i want to move from here to route to how to read engaged there are some great folks that serve that have been terrific service but the morale is terrible nationwide. Thank you. I thank you hit on the key i thank you hit on the key concerns. The care of the workforce and the training and the brow for and the morale of the workforce. You mentioned in an earlier question about this same issue moreale is the Important Mission and we already have that. A clear sense and dedication of the leadership to perform that mission so talk about the potential disconnect is key to one fundamental aspect of route. If i am told the most important thing i can do is protect the travelling public but i am not measured how i do that is a disconnect. These are great americans. Not many people do that in this country. There still among the 1 who say i want to serve my nation. Next comes training. You have to train them and continually train them. So that they can do the mission. Senator so what is the difference . On those things are happening now. Is very easy for an organization to miss focus. You can never stop referring back to it. What i found in my service in the coast guard is even in a high morale organization you can have pockets of low morale. It is the day you get complacent at the leadership level. No one gets tired of being reminded how important their job is and no one gets tired of feeling good and learning how to use the equipment and no one gets tired of engaging with the organization and telling you where they think that they can do it better. It cannot just be a one time thing. You cant think you got it right because you held a meeting and moved on. Annual surveys are good places to figure out where you engage more effectively, but they dont answer the question. Sen. Langford both your hiring and training make a dig a difference. If there a couple that apples is difficult for everyone in the group. Managing attitudes makes an enormous difference. Can we talk about procurement . The tsa has millions of dollars of equipment stored, trying to figure out where to move it. Determining the efficiency. When the purchase of indifferent. If it has a 2 gain, is that enough . Lots of issues that involve billions of dollars of procurement. Talk to me about a change in attitude. Mr. Neffenger in my current role i service the component and acquisition executive. I oversee the acquisition process for the coast guard. That starts with the mission and how that mission can be accomplished and what keeps us from a kabul should and the mission. Then you build the requirements you need. Some of those are human requirements some are interactive. Then you have to have the ability to translate those requirements into the thing that you need to buy. There is a process that has to be in place. In the coast guard, we completely rebuilt our acquisition program. We did not have one of the best acquisition processes in the government, but i think we do know. We looked at it from start to finish. You cannot simply walk out to industry and say give me something that will do something. I dont blame industry for writing things that dont work. They provide what they have. But you need to say, what do i need to know . Looking at detection equipment what do i need that thing to find . What are the limitations of the technology to find that so i can figure out the other requirements that go on top of it. Not just for the equipment but the requirements for the things the equipment cannot do it all of that feeds into the procurement process. Then the oversights, controls and various requirements you have to separate the person writing the requirements from the person overseeing the program to the person contracting the program. The more separation you can have, the more rigorous you can hold that process. Otherwise you run into scheduled breaches or cost overruns. Sen. Langford i would encourage you to evaluate the effectiveness of the equipment not just how it works in an environment or laboratory, but how it works in the real world. The precheck issue. We have a lot of people coming through precheck who are not prechecked. We will have to either change the name, or focus on precheck. Im not talking about trusted traveler or other programs, but it seems that we are increasing the number of people to get efficiency and we are losing some of the focus of what it is designed to do and what the security is designed to do. We are trying to increase efficiency and losing our focus on security. It is a recipe for disaster. Precheck should be precheck and have some kind of background. Rather than the random or they meet some kind of profile. Sen. Heidcamp i want to add my voice to what senator langford just said. It has to mean something. They cannot just be that you flew a lot of miles and nothing bad happened so we will hand you the pass. We have to know who we are dealing with. I want to add my voice to what i hope has been the community, of how grateful we are that you are taking on this enormous challenge. Too often we do not say thank you to the folks who go through the onerous and difficult process. We are extraordinarily grateful and we find that more and more the people who put on the uniform of our armed forces continue to step up and continue their service. Thank you for what you are doing and your willingness to take this on. We are excited about the changes youre going to make in the things you are going to do having been in such important leadership positions in the past. The thing i want to talk about is something that senator langford and i have focused a lot in our subcommittee, how do you engage everyone . Regardless if they are the person collecting the trays at the end of the scanning line, to the person at the very top. How to you engage them so they have a sense of purpose and a sense of what they are doing everyday. What strategies do you think you can employ to improve morale by giving a sense of importance . Mr. Neffenger i talked about in my Opening Statement what do we teach people when they come in . I think back to my experience coming into the coast guard. You are taught the base culture of the organization. In our case, everyone has read this wonderful letter that came from the first treasury secretary, Alex Amer Alexander hamilton, the instructions to the revenue credit service, the precursor to the coast guard. They were told to do something which had never been done before which was to collect tariffs from the merchant vessels. Something they were not pleased about and did not want to encounter. In the process, he lays out all of their requirements, duties and obligations and the law that they have and the expectations. He said Something Interesting in the letter, it begins this cultural indoctrination. He says, always keep in mind that your countrymen are free men and are impatient for anything that bears the earmark of a domineering spirit. That one line is repeated over and over again throughout your career in the coast guard. We use it when we advance people in rank, when we promote them, when they swear in a new oath of office. You will do things that by nature interfere with the Free Movement of people, and sometimes you will do things that interfere with their individual rights because they would like to do something and you will get in their way. You dont have to do that in a way that offends them or a way that does not respect them. How does tsa do that . One of the things i would like to examine is what is the way that tsa indoctrinates or provides a culture. There is a tsa academy i dont know how well attended it is. And then engaging overtime. We live in an age where it is easy to communicate with people. I dont accept the premise that because you have a widely dispersed workforce that you cannot communicate all the time. We do this in the coast guard. I cannot touch every sing a member of the coast guard everyday, but i can assure myself that are plugged into the organization. I will look for ways to do that. I will connect leadership to the front line organization. One of the big factors is how different distant is your leadership from the people doing the work. I dont do the work of the coast guard anymore. The frontline men and women are doing the work out there. How do they know that i have their back and am providing the tools and training that they need if i do not listen to them. Those are the things i think about, connecting to the workforce, listening to what they have to say, learning from them. I meant what i said, i have learned about duty to people and commitment to excellence from the people who are doing that on a daily basis. I continue to learn today. I am always astonished about the new things that i learned. Sen. Heikamp i know it has been said already, that i think improving the morale of the tsa and reducing the turnover, you would have an appreciation by everyone how important their work is and how much the country is counting on them. As we saw in california, their work can be dangerous. They need to be appreciated for that. Standing on the front lines. Trying to be that visible signal. The other thing i would say that the public gets frustrated with is when they dont see value added to some of the things that the tsa does. They say why would we need to do that or this . When youre focusing on why they need to do that is also turning it outward and talking about the challenges that you have, so that People Like Us who are at airports all the time, better understand what the goal is. I would offer that suggestion that the communication not just be external. That we spend time truck talking to the traveling public about what you do. We have great hope for you and if there is something that we can do, and ideas you have where laws restrict you, i hope that you come back to this committee and say this is something that makes no sense. Please change it. Mr. Neffenger thank you, i will do that. I think we have pretty well covered most of the issues. The Ranking Member has another question or two. I will make the statement. Regardless of the fact that we have not had additional airplanes used as a weapon i would say that is because we looked at the Priority Solutions and we locked the cockpit doors. I do believe that some of it has been a state of denial. That the processes and procedures we have in place, it will catch the water bottle or my boy scout pocket knife that i did not realize within my briefcase, but for determined people that want to defeat the system i think the report is pretty telling. It is a matter of recognizing reality. Until a Ranking Member comes back, in our testimony yesterday. One of the whistleblowers claimed we talk about the morale issue, there is a feeling of fear and mistrust within the tsa. The senator talked about the retaliation. We will talk tomorrow about whistleblowers and the retaliation they have faced. It is disturbing how prevalent that really is. There is that problem within the tsa as well. You have a Significant Management challenge. Low morale, if that is true. I want to ask if you believe there really is a prevalent feeling of fear and mistrust. It is prone to complacency. How do you manage that and how do you rotate shifts or provide incentives to keep people alert . But do you confirm the fear and mistrust statement of our witness from yesterday . Mr. Neffenger i hope it is not a feeling of pervasive fear and mistrust, but i start from trusting my organization. That is where you learn the most about what you are doing. I will commit to you that this is one of the most important things for me. It speaks to the fundamentals of morale. If i work for an organization that i do not trust that will take action against me if i bring problems to light, that is a morale problem. What i will commit is that, that is not the way that i do business. It is not acceptable with any of the people with whom i am working or report to me and i will take a hard look at the current climate in the tsa. Senator over memorial day weekend, threats were made against International Flights bound for the United States. While the threats were deemed not to be credible, we know that passengers overseas present a risk to our security. How would you work with International Partners to improve baggage screening in Foreign Countries . Mr. Neffenger it is important to have agreedupon international standards. A have to be rigorous and at a level to a sure you are doing to assure you are doing your absolute best that you can to stop any threat. The coast guard represents the United States to various International Bodies that deal with Maritime Security and safety. What i found is that, first of all, those other countries want to be safe as well. If you have a patchwork of approaches, then you will have gaps in security. It is important to work with the International Bodies in the aviation world to ensure that you have clear and well defined and can assistant and consistent standards. That you have a mechanism to enforce adherence of those standards. We inspect in the coast guard to make sure that they are doing what they claim to be doing on paper. When we find evidence that they are not, then we apply sanctions up to and including the refusal to allow vessels from that port to arrive in u. S. Countries. The steam standards it is more important to do that in the aviation world. We know that we have significant concerns with foreign fighters, with increasing radicalization of terrorist groups, and they are continuing to focus on the aviation system. If confirmed i intend to work with counterparts around the world, particularly those countries with last points of departure for the United States and to en