Transcripts For CSPAN2 TSA Administrator Nominee Testifies At Confirmation Hearing 20220722

2017. Youre watching live coverage, on cspan 3. [inaudible] the committee will come to order. Today, we are considering the nomination of David Pekoske to be the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration at the department of Homeland Security. Administrator pekoske, welcome back to the committee. And congratulations on another nomination for this position. And thank you for your willingness to continue to serve in a challenging and Important Role in the federal government. Over 20 years ago, the Transportation Security Administration was established in response to the september 11th terrorist attacks, to carry out the essential mission of ensuring that travelers are both safe and secure. Since its creation, travelers have encountered tsa on a daily basis. Most notably, during the security screening process at our nations airports. In fact, tsa currently screens over 2 million travelers each and every day. This is a significant undertaking, and it wouldnt be possible without our dedicated frontline tsa staff. Who work hard each and every day to ensure our Transportation Safety but especially throughout the national pandemic, where they continue to serve with great honor. Administrator pekoske, im grateful for your vocal support of the tsa workforce and i would florida working with you to ensure that our tsa officers receive that compensation and benefits that they certainly deserve. As we discussed during last weeks hearing, the threat to our Homeland Security posed by Unmanned Aircraft systems is rapidly growing. I know tsa has requested explicit authorities to conduct counterUnmanned Aircraft system activities to maintain our transportation security. And i certainly support these efforts. Im working on Bipartisan Legislation and to reauthorize and strengthen counter Unmanned Aircraft system authorities to better tackle this threat. Which i plan to introduce in the coming weeks. As we work to protect travelers from threats in the sky, we must also focus on the travel experience on the ground. As chairman of this committee, i have long pressed the department of and its component agencies to address concerns raised by communities, including michigans muslim and arab communities, about challenges they face during the travel screening process. Security of our Transportation System is absolutely critical, but we must also ensure that tsa is upholding civil rights and Civil Liberties and the privacy of our travelers. I am pleased that customs and Border Protection has recently announced a new Senior Community relations manager, to address the its very unique concerns. But i would like to see tsa take a more proactive step to be responsive to the affected communities and address these concerns as well. Administrator a cow ski, if nominated for a second term you will play a Critical Role in ensuring our screening procedures and standards, specifically the dhs traveler inquiry program, are fair and equitable, easy to navigate and as transparent as absolutely possible. I look forward to working with you to ensure tsa can proactively protect travelers and our transportation facilities. And to hearing more from you about your vision for continuing the tsa is critical mission. Ranking member portman will be joining us shortly. We have a lot going on all around capitol hill right now, he will be here shortly and well have an opportunity for Opening Statements at that time. But now, it is the practice of the committee to swear in witnesses. So, if you will please stand, sir, and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony that you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Thank you. You may be seated. Today, our witness is David Pekoske, who is nominated to serve a second term as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration at the department of Homeland Security. Administrator pekoske oversees 60,000 employees and is responsible for Security Operations at nearly 440 airports throughout the United States. And the security of highways, railroads, mass transit systems and pipelines. While at dhs, administrator pekoske also served as the acting secretary and as the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary. Previously, administrator pekoske served as the 26th vice commandant of the United States coast guard. And as the executive in the Government Services industry, where he led teams that provide counterterrorism, security and Intelligence Support Services to government agencies. Administrator, welcome back to this committee. Thank you, once again, for your service and your willingness to serve once again. You may proceed with your opening remarks. Thank you, mister chairman. Good morning chairman peters, Ranking Member portman and distinguished members of the committee. Ive had the honor of serving as a leader of the Transit Security administrator for nearly five years now. And it is my great privilege to be before you today, to be considered for a second five year term as administrator. I think President Biden for renominating me for this Important National security position, and also thank secretary mayorkas and the entire dhs team for their support during this process. I deeply appreciate the support my family provides me in this position in throughout my career. When President Biden announced my renomination, one equate and said to me, thats a tough job, why would you want to do it again for another five years . The answer to this is simple. I want to continue to support the amazing tsa workforce. The tsa workforce is exceptional and, during my time at tsa, they have performed at a highlevel image challenging in historic circumstances. Whether it is transportation Security Officers, air marshals, inspectors or all of the tsa employees who support them behind the scenes, im immensely proud to be part of an organization laser focused on protecting our nation and its Transportation Systems. They are a dedicated, committed workforce. Our transportation Security Officers interact with millions of people every day and perform a critical National Security function for our nation. Their watch never stops, they came to work without pay during a 35day partial Government Shutdown in 2019. They staff the checkpoints when much of the rest of the country remained home amid the onset of the covid19 pandemic. And transportation Security Officers have been an important part of the recovery of air travel that we are seeing this year, especially the summer. Similarly, our federal air marshals protect the nation during shutdowns, pandemics and other highlevel incidents. They do so with a level of professionalism and integrity that serves as a model for the entire tsa family. There were prices and inspiration to me and totally deserving of our full support. That starts with funded the president s fiscal year 2023 budget request, which provides pay equity for tsa employees and, finally, puts them on an equal pay footing with the rest of their counterparts in the federal government. If confirmed, i will continue to do all that i can to advocate for and hopefully implement pay equity. I will continue to work hard to ensure the tsa workforce is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next five years and beyond. Tsa did not do its job alone, our Mission Success is directly dependent on the cooperation between the agency and its myriad of partners. In aviation, we continue our Strong Partnerships with critical stakeholders. The airlines, airports, state and local governments, other federal agencies, foreign governments and, of course, pilots and flight attendants. Equally important other growing partnerships that we have with the surface transportation sector, where tsa works closely with the oil and natural gas pipeline, passenger and transit rail, freight rail, trucking and bus industries. Finally, amid the challenges of growing cyber threats, tsa relies heavily on forging partnerships with the owners and operators of our critical transportation infrastructure, for which tsa serves as a security regulator. I value our Strong Partnership with organized labor, employee Resource Groups and Advisory Panel to provide advocacy for our workforce. They help us remain strong by promoting healthy and thriving working environments for our tsa family. I want to take a second and recognize these partnerships and think all of those entities for their contributions towards securing our nations Transportation Systems. If confirmed, i will do everything i can to make sure that he has a maintains and strengthens these important partnerships, to ensure that our pursuit of the highest level of transportation security works in tandem with the facilitation of trade and commerce in the Transportation System. Finally, i want to thank this committee for your critical work to provide the authority to the department and now explicitly to tsa to counter unmanned aerial systems. I also appreciate the committees work on Critical Infrastructure security, to include efforts addressing the cybersecurity of the transportation sector. If reconfirmed, i hope to continue this important cooperation between haste gagged and tsa. 20, years tsa has grown significantly and learned about how to be the best of protecting our nations Transportation Systems. We still have more to do, but i remain committed to tsas future. Chairman peters, Ranking Member portman and distinguished members of this committee, i look for to answer your questions. Thank, you sir. Thank you, administrator. Ranking member portman, you are recognized for your opening comments. Thank you, mister pekoske, for your willingness to serve again. And mister chairman, thank you for having this hearing. This is a really really critical position, i dont need to tell you that. You know well. Its also one that this committee cares a lot about, given our oversight responsibilities. Tsa has played a vital role since 9 11 of course, in combatting terrorism and ensuring that our aviation and Transportation Systems are protected. As i walk through the tsa line, which i do twice a week, i say thank you for protecting us. Because thats what you do. We appreciate that and we have fought to try to help ensure that your tsa personnel are treated appropriately in the federal government, Law Enforcement context. We want to do more in that regard. So, we appreciate your work and the diligence that the tsa work for us that. If you look at the record, although geo and others have hope to make your system work better by putting out flaws, we have been blessed with not having the kinds of incidents that everyone feared we would have repeatedly after 9 11. I will say that 9 11 type threats, having been really be the greatest challenge in the reason tsa was bulked up and appropriately those threats have evolved over time. Specifically, i want to talk to you about how tsa needs to realign to meet those of all being threats. Their job is not just to protect our airports and air travelers, but also the nation surface Transportation Systems. And so, Colonial Pipeline, you may know, its a big issue of concern with this committee. We had hearings on, it weve drafted legislation, actually enacted some legislation to help deal with that kind of threat. Expose vulnerabilities and tsas oversight of our nations surface Transportation System, specifically the pipelines but, more broadly, that Ransomware Attack at Colonial Pipeline was the largest attack on Oil Infrastructure in the history of the country. It also prompted you to issue the first ever Cyber Security related security directives for owners and operators of pipelines that require mandatory reporting and mitigation measures. When issuing these directives, tsa used emergency authorities, as you know, to bypass regulatory notice. I remain concerned that the use of this Emergency Authority departs from tsas previously collaborative approach with Industry Experts on cybersecurity standards. This committee, i think, is on a bipartisan basis has some concerns about this. And the concern we have is the repeated refusal to provide information this committee about those draft directives in congress. This includes a chairs and Ranking Members of the committee and other congressional committees. Despite having shared copies of the giraffes of these directives to the pipeline industry. Youve provided them to the pipeline industry into the oversight committees. Declination gotten is that he wont provide drafts because their predecisional and therefore deliberative, i guess that confuses me, since youve already shared them with external companies and officials. Today will be an opportunity for you to explain how these documents can be both to terminally deliberative and externally share with the private sector. Thats a contradiction. You know, i think sometimes when things come to congress, they tend to become too public. I can say is, i think chairman in peters and i in particular have a history of treating these kinds of documents in the appropriate way. We need to know whats your directives are. Saying to the private sector to make sure that we protect our responsibilities, which are incredibly important right now, in order of whats happening with these pipelines and other potential threats. Again, thank you for your years of service, the tsa will continue to be a important piece of Security Framework in the United States as we get back to air travel. I was just in the airport on monday and it was packed. I was told that we are 85 of where we were precovid this summer. Frankly, we are back to where we were in the summer of 2019. Thats good to hear, i know Business Travel is still off. Even with inflation and all the concerns about our economy. Your travelers are back and we have to be sure the tsa provides its Important Service to protecting our nation and we appreciate what you do every day. Again, thank you mr. Chairman for meeting with us at this hearing and i look forward further talking with the straps directive. Thank, you Ranking Member portman. There are three questions that this Committee Asks of everyone who comes before us. Ill ask you, mister klukowski, if you can respond with the yes or no to either these questions. First, is there anything you are aware of in your background that might prevent a conflict of interest with the duties of office in which you happen to know. No, sir. Do you know anything, personal or otherwise, that would anyway prevent you from fully and honorably discharged responsibilities of the office to which you have been nominated. No sir. Do you agree, with a reservation, to comply with any requests for summons to rip here and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress if elected. Thank you. Administrators pekoske, me and you have spoken at length about concerns raised from the muslim in american communities. About many of the tsa implemented lists in policies and programs that can lead to additional strings at the airport. We can both agree that security for the Airline Travel is of utmost importance, thats something i focused on 100 , as i know you are. There are also multiple documented cases of individuals remaining on these lists for over a decade, even though there is no evidence whatsoever that they pose any sort of threat. My question for you sir is, please tell me what steps youre taking to address concerns of these policies disproportionately impacted communities, certain communities, and have done so for 20 years. Mister chairman, thank you very much, for raising the issue in for a conversation last week. This is something i do want to address completely and fully, i think its very important for an agency that has secure responsibilities that directly impacts to Million People every day in the United States to have the trust of the traveling population to know that the procedures we have in the process as we use our fair, equitable, consider civil rights liberties and privacy concerns very traveler. I will assure you that i can do everything i can to address this issue. You mentioned in your Opening Statement the designation of a direct report to provide input. I fully endorse that idea. We do have an office of travel engagements in tfsa that is a direct report to the administrator, i do want to make sure that we assure those lines of communications are robust, the point of rather than waiting for someone to come to us. That we hereditary schedule of our engagement. The other thing i promised to do is to revisit the committees in the state of michigan in a state of minnesota to introduce myself to those communities and to begin to establish a relationship with them at my level. In addition to the relationships that exist at of levels in the agency. On people to feel that if they have a question about how tsa processes their security, we listened carefully, we get the facts that are there and we make sure we go back that we arent unfairly causing additional process to any particular traveler. The other thing we discussed that im already looking at is, in our communications through the redress program. I think you can improve but we communicate back to passengers, to clearly explain whats the letter says and what it means and what does it mean for them. You have my full commitment to address this. I know, commissioner was up in michigan recently. He came back and had a good experience up there. I look forward to speaking to him and the secretary to a dhs team that can be getting to address this problem completely. Good to hear that, i appreciate your commitment, we look forward to hosting you michigan in the near term. Thank you free williams do that. As our nation continues to recover from covid19 pandemic, tsas frontline staff, as youre well aware, continue to work tirelessly leslie to ensure our system remains safe and secure. However, significant parts of the tsa workforce i think, are underpaid, relative to other similar situated federal employees. And other agencies, which is impeding the tsas ability to retain qualified workers that are so essential for our workforce. My question to you, i appreciate your support of the proposal of the president addressing this longstanding equity that would provide our frontline tsa staff with the increased in their base pay. Id like you to address, what is the impact of this compensation and benefit disparities on our frontline tsa workforce and why do we need this action in order to rectify this situation . Mister chairman, this is my number one priority as the administrator currently and if confirmed, Going Forward to fix this pay issue. Our frontline transportation security, offers the uniform officers that travelers see every time they traveled there is a cutie checkpoint, on average, they have paid 30 less than their counterparts in the rest of the federal government. Thats unfair. It inhibits our ability to recruit and retain talents, this is the most important thing facing us that we need to address. As you mentioned, the president included the fy 23 budget request, to improve pay across the board in a tsa, not above any federal agency but equitable with every federal agency. I think its so important that we do that. We have, on our screen, about a 20 attrition rate thats, way too high. When i watch it, average levels of experience in our checkpoints go from five years to four years to three that is a curative concern as well. I appreciate your continued support of pay equity its really important for the success of the tsa Going Forward. Last week, this Committee Held a hearing to examine the threats to the threat posed by Unmanned Aircraft systems. As well as a potential expansion of authority. Part of legislation every working on currently with senator johnson would provide explicit authorization for the tsa to conduct activities to protect transportation facilities and assets. Administrator pekoske, can you explain the usa threat that airports are currently facing from this committee to fully understand and why tsa needs this authorities and need them now to maintain safe and secure air travel . Mister chairman, airports facing u. S. Challenge every single day. Just yesterday, we had three reports from pilots of sightings of you a and they were landing as theyre taking off. Three days ago, we had a helicopter that had a collision with a uas in pennsylvania. We have to test beds, one of miami and one in los angeles. Those test beds show us the reports we get from pilots that we just mentioned are the tip of the iceberg of uas activity in indoor and airports. We are testing our detect, track, and identify equipment a video picture of what is operating was airports. We dont want to work on this, theres so much more to do, as you said, our stories expire very shortly, they expire in october. They were expired of being renewed or refreshed or enhanced. All of those activities we currently do and all the coordination we currently do to will stop. This is a growing threat to our Aviation System and we need to contain this work. I appreciate your focus and your emphasis on providing direct authority to the agencies. This is something we need to be able to respond to on an incident have those direct authorities. Thank you. Thank you to report, mini recognized for questions. Thank you, chairman. Mr. Pekoske, to ask you what the tsa success, possibly identifying a known terrorists according to him. It was unthinkable to play in florida. Was this man listed on the no fly list . No sir, he was not. This occurred back in april, about four days after he was encountered by the Border Patrol in arizona. When he showed up at the tsa checkpoint, given the information that he provided to the carrier when he purchased his tickets, we knew that we needed to do some additional Identity Verification for the traveler and if that warranted some additional enhanced screening work with him as well. Thats all we did. Was he in a terrorist screen database . I cant confirm whether or not he was. When i can say, the information this passenger provided indicated to us that we need to provide enhanced screening. We also need to get further information on his identity. Furthermore, we thought it was necessary to provide federal air marshals on the flight he was on. Do you allow names on the terrorist screening database to fly . Yes sir. Why would you allow that . We dont think those passengers present such an immediate risk as to be catastrophic to an airplane midflight. We have concerns. We feel we can mitigate those concerns through our screening process and when appropriate, the provide air marshals on the flights. Coordinating that information across the agencies all agencies who have an interest are devised of the passengers travel. Id like to follow up on that, maybe its better classified, it appears to me if someone is on the terrorists green database and you have to bring in air marshals to fly with a person, that person should not be permitted on the u. S. Carrier flight. I understand, im very happy to preview in the appropriate setting. This is a very carefully developed and coordinated and governed Risk Management process weve used for years. So, youre not going to meet mr. Pekoske with on that list, it sounds like you treated them as though he was. Yes, sir. We treated him with the risk that we felt he presented and we wanted to mitigate that risk. Is he continuing to fly . I dont know whether hes attempted to fly but he would be permitted to fly. Is he here legally . I dont know the answer to that question sir. And that would be a customs and Border Protection question. He didnt find that out in the process of the screening . He was admitted into the country by the Border Patrol. So most likely, yes. That happens to a couple hundred thousand people a month that doesnt mean hes here lawfully. He was likely awaiting immigration proceedings. Can you explain to this committee why you can share draft copies of these directives, we talked about this earlier, you provide them to industry with regard to security, can you explain why do i provide these draft copies to the private sector and not to the commercial we want to collaborate with our committees in their staff as great as we can. We would benefit significantly from the process. We have offered and i believe we have briefed the Second Security director your fencing in your Opening Statement, what is contained in that directive. Let me be clear on that. Heres a letter from october, last year. Where we asked the Inspector General to get involved in this, we were not giving information. I know theyre doing an investigation to try and figure out an audit of your processes. Weve been asking for this for a long time. You saw your staff nodding your head when you say we flew last week. You briefed only staff. You did it incamera, meaning he wouldnt leave documents for the rest of us to see, including members of the committee. You did last week, i said, because youre coming in here today. Which, we appreciate you being here. Again, senator peters and i have a history of treating these documents with the appropriate level of sensitive, in this case, there may be reasons for us to have these documents provided to us in a setting, we understand that. Wed like to understand what your directing folks to do. We dont want in their Colonial Pipeline and our job is to try and go to oversights to avoid that. We were drafting legislation to deal with it not to know with the directives are. Your tongue the pipelines, makes our job very hard. I think it makes your job harder to. I would ask you today to share this with us. You say there are internal liberation, is that the reason . We are about to reissue those. I intend to sign a directive this afternoon to get back to my office. The reason why the breeze profit last weeks because it was in final form but were that. That way you can see the net result process of our workings within the industry with our other federal partners. Why havent you share those with us . We will, sir. You get a copy this afternoon. Well, thank you. I appreciate that, the federal courts have been very clear about that. They waive any claim the information is disclosed. Thats been true. I mentioned weve bets for a long time. This goes back to october of last year. We appreciate your sharing with us. Again, i thank you for your willingness to step up and serve again. You get a tough job. Its a difficult task for tsa, your pay grades are not that of a federal Law Enforcement official. I think the tsa morale problem is real. Again, i have a lot of discussions with tsa individuals, ive gotten to know some of them throughout the years. This problem has spanned administrations and spanned a secretaries. Im not putting the onus on this administration. Youve been in the trump and biden administration. If confirmed, what do you believe your goal is improving morale in tsa and what plans do you have to do things differently based on your experience . My role, as a central role, is really within the agency. Part of what im trying to do is take, with one, be very responsive to the feedback were getting from our workforce and our workforce across the agency. As you know, we did the federal Employee Viewpoints every year. We encourage, in fact, we close tomorrow. With actively encouraged people and giving them time to fill out the survey results and i think we demonstrate very well to our employees we Pay Attention to the input that we receive. We look at individual locations differences so that we can drill him and figure out whats going on to address these sorts of dissatisfaction. I think pay is a big part of it but isnt the only part. Part of it is to make sure that people view that they have opportunities to grow in tsa and to do all the great things we do in a security checkpoint and beyond. My times expired, we look forward to the draft directive. Thank you for your service. Senator portman, good morning, how are you . Yes, i did. Nice to be back. Always good to see you. We worked together in this committee for a long time. We shared how are you today . Im doing great, senator, how are you . Thanks so much for coming back. I look at the one behind me and see a couple of very familiar faces. Its always a pleasure to see them. Id like to say were only as good as we have around us and you have some special people around you. My staff is going to give you a couple questions in the like mean ask. Our start off by saying, you had Opportunities Service over five years, what are some things youve learned over the last five years that you think will help you become a more effective leader in the next five . Sir, every day is a learning experience in tsa, because the learning experiences incredibly complex. We talked about the Opening Statements that were known for Aviation Security but even just that sentence is under stating the scope and scale of what we do, aviation means airlines and airports it means cargo facilities, to screen cargo before a gets on board the aircraft. Its a very complex job, i endeavor to be as close to the front line of tsa as i possibly can. I dont want to be in a setting like this, speaking to the agencies process and have folks that work in tsa hearing you say that going, okay, he doesnt have that as of right as we wish he would. I want to be a credible voice my workforce, and i said my Opening Statement, which im humbled by the tremendous workforce that tsa has. I view my primary responsibilities to support and enable them and to give them tools and technologies the into the job done. They serve us proud. Thank you, i want to talk a bit about, i recall, it was my 15, the Transportation Security Administration created an Innovation Task force. I think it was for a couple of reasons, one is to foster innovation and improve the Passenger Experience well and strong agencies days dynamic throughout the environment which we operate live. You have stated this task force is glob rating with industry, in line, airports, equipments manufacturers and others to try and use the best technology to improve security and improve the Passenger Experience. Could you give us an update please, perhaps on some concrete examples on how this task force has responded to the threat of that landscape by bad actors who use gaps in our defenses and how is tsa working with the national and the Industry Partners to enhance our security. But its one of the crown jewels tsa. Its embedded in their requirements its reaches across the entire agency and with their entire partners. I think a couple of examples of things the Innovation Task force has done. Has injures can see now, when they got a screening process. When you think about, that you put it in context of a Government Agency to deliver capability very quickly. That improves security and improved passenger spurious the same time. The first example i give you is our new Identity Verification technology. Ill even take a step further as to where theres going over the next couple of months, we Just Announced a partnership with apple, where passengers can download their state drivers license in states that participate into their apple wallet. Youll be able to, when you can, to walk up to the checkpoint, instead of your phone in a transmits information. Totally touchless and what happens not infrequently is people forget their drivers licenses sometimes. They hardly ever forget their phones. Having this in your phone is a huge benefit i think two passengers and certainly it is better security for us. The next technology is a cat scan xray technology. What this does is gives us a much better, picture of whats in the carry on bag. To the point, we can resolve questions we have on the screen. We dont need to do a back search, and customers who use this technology dont have to get aerosols, liquids or gels and laptops. We can have the machine with all around the back to determine if its anything that would cause a concern of ours. We pride ourselves in working really closely with our partners to give you one final example, senator, if i could. Weve been working with one of the major carriers on curved biometrics. But this means is that a passenger can show up, hes a prechecked passengers currently. Can show up and use their facial image to fellow date that they are who they say they are. Weijia philip this acknowledging significantly to the point where they can check their bags with their face. It spits out a bag tag, the place, it put around the conveyor belt, walk through the screen checkpoint, use their faces identity to get to the beginning of a screening process. When they get on the gates aboard the aircraft, their face admits them of the aircraft. It means theres a lot less pieces of paper and credentials need to carry. For us, its very much improved security posture. Thank you for that. I ask about moral, whatever i fly, i mostly to train, spotify law. I almost always, when im going to security, i talk to tsa agents. And thank them for what they do and tell them who i am. And the role that i play here and let them know that we appreciate what they do very much to help others do that to. I spent a lot of years of my life forming as a naval flight officer. I learned of a whole lot about who leadership in our learned a lot about morale. Had a foster good morale in the military. Youve had great leadership opportunities in the coast guard. What are some lessons you learned there are those years that youre able to put to work now . I will ask you to be fairly succinct. I would someone up in presents, be present with their workforce, they need to see you there in the need to see that youre engaged in the work they do and you understand it. Second is communications, we always say, im sure you experienced this in the navy. Every after action report Just Communications couldve been improved, we could provide that. Lets go ahead of that as much as we can and continue Strong Communications and finally, one of the things i think is so critically important to this move functioning of organization is that everybody feels included. Nobody feels excluded. Everybody fills the opportunity to their counterparts have. I want to foster that as i continue on confirming. Those are all good. Mister chairman, i relinquish the gavel. Thank you for your service. Its a good thing i dont get paid by the minute. That would not have been much. Senator haaland, youre up next. Thank you, mister chairman. Mr. Pekoske, thanks for being here some questions for you to be. , frank with you, ive got some concerns about your record. Lets start with your decision to allow Illegal Immigrants to use arrest warrants as a form of idea tsa checkpoints. In response to congressional inquiry on this, you responded, tsa established a process where it will allow certain forms for non citizens or internationals for presentation and securing checkpoints. He went on to list the forms that tsa would accept, it included a warrant for arrest, a warrant of removable and deportation, the ordeal of release of cognizance and or direct supervision in notice to appear, an arrival and departure form which included a print out of electronic records for alien booking records. I wrote to you on january 31st of this year asking you about this and he responded to this letter yet . We have not responded, i will respond tomorrow. Right after todays hearing, thats amazing how that works. I saw a response earlier and it didnt it do i have the response . You dont, but youll have it tomorrow. Right after todays hearing. May we should have more of these hearings. This is july, isnt it . I sent it to you in january. As a long time to respond to a letter that is two and a half pages long. Lets see if we can get some answers now. How many individuals have presented tsa with arrest warrants of deportation notices and were prepared to travel on this counter year . Under 1000. How does this policy report these individuals that have as arrest warrants, those arrest warrants were issued by the Border Patrol or customs officer. They serve as a beginning to our Identity Verification process. You cant walk up to a checkpoint, wave that form, and go right through to screening. We go through a process to verify that you are the person that you claim to be and that you are receiving the level of screening, which always includes enhanced screening when people dont have proper identification. As somebody who presents an arrest warrant is submit to an inperson interview with the federal Security Director. They have interviewed the officers that are on scene at the checkpoint. Does not always happening, officers are doing, theyre talking to when you see the officers in the checkpoint, what are we talking about . The transportation Security Officers. The uniformed officers at the checkpoint. Okay, but not the federal Security Director . They will bring in the director if needed. I read a person not be needed if you have someone that is an illegal immigrant . So, we are not looking at some one being illegal or legal in the country, our function is to why not . Because our role is to make sure that people who may pose a risk to transportation that is significant enough to either require enhanced screening or not allow them to fly, that the proper procedure so, someone who is known to violate the laws of the United States is not required enhanced purity . Sir, there are people who violate the laws of the United States every day that fly. We look for things that are related to transportation security. And you dont think someone who is, by definition, somebody who presents a warrant for arrest, you dont think that necessitates enhanced screening . I think all those individuals getting hit screening. You just told me that it doesnt necessarily involve any interview with the federal Security Director. They also said that you may well let them get on airplanes in effect of, at least, 1000 people in this calendar year alone. In his screening i getting on the airplane are two very different things. I just dont understand why you have i, mean for every person watching this hearing who has experienced the tsa screening process, it cannot to be very onerous. Its very long and in fact, under your tenure ship, the times for screening have gone up, up, up at airports across the country. Including my home state of missouri, st. Louis is not the six longest greeting process in the country. Despite the size of our airport there. People who have done absolutely nothing wrong, lawabiding citizens in every respect, are subject to the most basic screening at these airports. Yet you are allowing immigrants to present warnings for arrested waving them on the airplanes. Not doing that, sir. You just told me that youve let 1000 people travel on airlines who present to you warrants for arrest. Yes, they present those warrants, that word is the beginning of an Identity Verification process. Why isnt that the end of the process . And you say, sorry, you have a warrant for an arrest. Were not going to allow you to get on an airplane. Because we want to identify who is presenting themselves at the screening checkpoint and ensure that those individuals get the right level of screening. For folks who do not have the acceptable forms of id that we list on our web page, they all receive enhanced greening. So, every Single Person that presents a warning receives enhanced screening before theyre allowed to get on an aircraft. Now, if they dont pass as, greeting they dont get on the aircraft. Boy, i think youre going to have a hard time explaining to folks who wait for all these times in these lines, who subject themselves voluntarily at all the restrictions that you impose, who are pat it down, who are frisked, asked to stop aside, who have their luggage rifled through. They have items confiscated from, them the randomly selected or perhaps sometimes not so randomly selected for enhanced greening. But youre allowing illegal aliens with warrants for arrest to get on to airplanes. Youve allowed at least 1000 of them in this calendar year. I mean, i just find that completely extraordinary. Let me ask you about something you did when you are briefly acting head of dhs from february 25th of 2021. He published a memo that enacted 100 a more end im on almost all legal immigrant removals from the United States. As well as 100day review of dhs Law Enforcement policies. Thankfully, this was blocked by a federal judge. I want to have you explain, i dont know why you are trying to improve border enforcement capabilities at a time when we were and are experiencing record numbers of illegal immigration. Sir, we dont have enough resources, clearly, to handle the number of people coming across the border. We are trying to focus the resources we have. No agency in this government has all the resources they need to do the jobs that they have been asked to do. Im sorry. So, your answer is that you wanted to do less enforcement just ignore everybody that was here before november 1st, 2020 . Not at all. We want to do more effective enforcement. Heres what you attempted to do. You try to narrow dhss enforcement abilities to include only three, three types of illegal aliens. One, spies and terrorists. To, you aliens who entered after november 1st, 2020. Where those convicted of aggravated felonies and were released from incarceration on or after the date of your memo. That is a significant narrowing. Basically, if you came before november 1st 2020 and you issued this in january 2021, youre just off the hook. Sir, those are enforcement priorities but not all the enforcement that could occur. If you read further in that memo, it allows for discretion by the officer. Those priorities are primarily for resource allocation decisions, as to where the resources would be place to be most effective. I think those three priorities are three of the very Top Priorities that we ought to focus on limited capabilities on. Well, im just glad that youre blocked your attempt to do this. I have to say, in terms of your priorities and what you have done, from allowing those with arrest warrants to fly all subjecting lawabiding citizens to what you have done. To your record of the terrible wait times and experience that youre putting lawabiding citizens through. Todays action. I just cant say i agree with your priorities, mr. Pekoske. I thank, you mister chairman. Thank you, senator hawley. Senator scott, youre recognized for your questions. Thanks for being here. Did you go through, i dont get to hear all of senator hawleys questions, but can you go through what authority of the law you allow Illegal Immigrants, a permitted to use i. C. E. Arrest warrants as acceptable form of identification for tsa. Explain why you do that. Yes, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. That ice arrest warrant is not a criminal warrant in the way most people would interpret it to mean. What it means is this individual has encountered ice and ice has released that person had given them this document as a form of beginning and Identity Verification process. Like for tsa. So, when ice issues these forms and that person continues to travel, they make a reservation with the carriers as they normally would. They come into the screening checkpoint, they show us that form. That begins in a tire process where we work to verify their identity. , essentially what were looking to do is to ensure that this is the person who claims to be in front of us. And we have advances quite a bit over the past year, year and a half. To now, we are working with customs and Border Protection. We use a biometric identification. So, sometimes, when these individuals approached the checkpoint, already with the reservation, we do a biometric facial scan. That app, thats on an iphone, which was the result that yes, this person was encountered by Border Patrol or a customs field officer and they were paroled into the country. And we verify their identity biometric lee. So, theyve been checked against the terror databases. Have even down to the border . Yes i have. So, my trips down there, everybody throws their ideal way before they come across the border. I have not experienced where people have come over with their i. D. So, what you just said, it doesnt seem like thats how it would work. How can anybody verify who they are . Sir, they use biometrics. So either a facial image or a print. Do we have it from mexico or venezuela . Now, we have it from the individual, sir. It vigil provides or biometric, we use the biometric to ensure that it is not representative of any of our watchlist information. So, we actually dont really have good information. What youre saying is, somebody throws their ideal way, they come across the border and say im rick scott. They say, im rick scott, heres my information. Border patrol has no background because cuba is not going to give it to you or venezuela or nicaragua. And then they use that to get on the plane. That person, who might not have identification, encounters a Border Patrol. The Border Patrol captures their fingerprints, uses the fingerprints to ensure that they are not watch listed and they are admissible into the country. And then, when that person approaches a tsa checkpoint, we go back and verify that this is the person that the Border Patrol admitted into the country and this is a person that did not have any watchlist information on them. Irregardless of whats outcome that is, once we go through Identity Verification processes, they all received hand screenings. So, no person with one of those arrest warrants, which, again, are non criminal arrest warrants, gets into an aircraft without enhanced screening. And that enhanced screening process, there are situations where, through and hit screening, we eventually deny entry as well. But that is kind of rare. Okay. So, as an american citizen, you have to have photo i. D. Whats coming across the border. If i came across the border today, Border Patrol stops me, i say im whatever my name is. They take my i. D. How fast can they fly on a plane . We have processes, because we have american citizens every day that lose their identity or forget their identity when they come to the checkpoint. So, we have some passengers that approached the checkpoint with no identity whatsoever. We use the very same Identity Verification process that is, basically, right out of our Operations Center here in washington. They can fly the sameday . They can fly the same day, provided that we can validate their identity. We have a whole series of processes that we can used to do that. But if theyre a cuban citizen, you dont have any ability. If theyve lived in cuba all their life, they flew to mexico city, flew to mexico, rally when across the border. Then, you have no information. If we have no information and cant validate their identity, then they dont fly. So, if they came across, they have no i. D. , they have no background. Isis. The person gives their name and their fingerprint. They wouldnt be able to fly . Unless we had captured their print on their border crossing. And checked them against the watchlisting information that we all hold. But the have no information, you have no information . But we have their print. So, all you have, then, if they say their name and their print and that day they can fly . Arguably, yes. Although thats rare, the same day. Lets think about that for a second. You know you have no information from cuba, right . You get nothing out of iran, method out of north korea, nothing had a lot of africa. Definitely not out of nicaragua. And people can get on planes and fly immediately. As an american citizen, wouldnt you say that doesnt make sense . Before they can get on the aircraft, they go through a full path down. They go through a full bag search, in addition to our regular screening process. So, we have mitigated risk substantially in that process. And we know that, because we take their print when we cross the border, we know that their print is not matching with anybody thats on the terror screening database. I just i just think, as an american citizen, you know people come across the border to harm us. We didnt stop the 9 11 attackers when we had the system there, right . To me, this, i think this is an unbelievable rise. When you stop and think about. It can throw your ideal way, you are a terrorist, might not be on the list yet but youre here to do harm. That they, people can fly. That doesnt make sense. Things are quite different though, now, from 9 11. We have a very sophisticated system that would detect people that would present harm to the United States. And weve use that system successfully for years now. This Identity Verification process has been in place since 2019. So, let me ask you a question. Ive gone through sometimes, theyre doing tests to see how many people get through. So you guys do that, right . How many people get through . How many times does a gun get through . We do covert tests on a pretty regular basis. Those results are always classified, for obvious reasons. We use those covert tests to show us where vulnerabilities might exist and are systematic close those vulnerabilities as quickly as we can. So, but i think youd acknowledge that knives get through, guns get through. Right, knives and guns never get through enhanced screening. Cannot go through and hand screening . Because were taking the bag apart, doing a full paton of the person. How about explosives . We would detect explosives, knives, any prohibitive item. Its very thorough. As it needs to be. Okay. Thanks. Thanks, chair. Thank you, senator scott. Mr. Pekoske, administrator pekoske. Senator scott and how we have been asking about the policy to accept arrest warrants at tsa checkpoints. My question for you is, when did the tsa make that policy change . That policy change, sir was made in 2019. During the Trump Administration . Yes, sir. This is a Trump Administration policy . Yes, sir. We made it stronger since then. Okay, thank you. Senator ossoff, youre recognized for your questions. Thank you chairman. And administrator, thank you for joining us. I want to begin by addressing staff capacity concerns and delays that are, in particular, affecting Hartsfieldjackson International Airport in atlanta. As country returns to air travel after the worst periods thats far of the covid19 pandemic, Airline Passengers have been frustrated by cancellations and long lines at airports in georgia in across the country. Over the past year, many airports have faced delays due to a staffing capacity issues that he is a security checkpoints. How is tsa proactively addressing workforce shortages through expanded recruitment and Employee Retention efforts . Sir, thank you for the question. And thank you for the support of the team at 80 l, very much appreciated. We are seeing rapid recovery of travel to the point of 90 where we are overall pretend amok. Three years ago, where about 90 of those levels. Our staff is not where he needs to be but, in general, across our system every single day of 430 ports in the country. We are meeting our way time standards. And those standards are for a non project passenger to get through screening within 30 minutes and for a precheck passenger within ten. And we consistently, across the system, meet those standards. With their exception, when you consider 430 airports and roughly 2400 screening lanes, ill have a report maybe three or four reports a day where we mightve exceeded those standards. Having said, that we do need more staff than what we have today. And we expect the recovery to continue into the fall and into the december holidays. Doing great work in providing incentives. The first, youve got to keep the great plains we have. We provided more incentives to keep current employees in tsa. Secondly, we just a dozen atlanta, we did focus recruiting events. We did six or 700 people that should of the recruiting events in atlanta. When we do there is, we do all the steps in our current process all at one time. You do your computer based testing, you do your medical process. You felt your security forms. This greatly streamlines our beleaguering people on board. The other thing thats critically important sir and i appreciate your support of this. We have a proposal in the president s budget for 2023 to provide equity for tsa. As you may know, our frontline screening workforce receives 30 less play than if they work there any other government agencies. Were about 30 off. That has a Significant Impact on our ability to recruit people and to retain folks. I think thats one of the most important things to provide responses to questions that members of congress such as yourself might have and hopefully if its approved, appropriate to implement. Thank you administration, will you commit to marking with my office and my leadership at hartsfieldjackson to ensure the airport has sufficient staff and driving down way times. Yes sir. Ive met with him, ive been doing to many times, i commit to that. I appreciate that commitment. I want to ask you airport firearm safety. Georgia has twice the National Rate of firearm protections by tsa. This number is increasing and it just made it 76 of firearms that tsa detects are loaded. Fox five atlanta reported a fire arm major security at Harvest Field Atlanta Airport unnoticed. It was reported the armed individual was not founded may have boarded a flight. Tsa has confirmed to implement it goes without saying, that in order to cut firearm present a serious danger to Airline Passengers and aviation safety. This incident is extremely concerning. What steps are you taking in response to the increasing number of firearms detected in airports, particularly those in georgia and major hubs like hartsfieldjackson, Atlanta National airport. Thanks to the question. Its an issue of concern for all of us. So far, this calendar year, we had 3400 weapons detected in our checkpoint process. That number, compared to last year, is about the same, when you prorated for where we are in the calendar year. The rate per million passengers is starting to go down. Its still way too high. But we are doing is making sure that we are very public, particularly the checkpoint as people are going to the queue lines, to remind everyone you cant bring a weapon into the security of an airport. You can carry a weapon in your check baggage. There are procedures for doing that. The other thing were doing, and we appreciate your support on this, its putting acknowledging our screening checkpoints. We have allowed new technology in Atlanta Airport. Part of that technology is the ability for the technology to automatically detect private items. Which we dont currently have the ability to do. That would be a huge assistance for officers who, as you can imagine, when youre looking at hundreds of images in any given generation, having this acknowledge you suspense which are often available. We believe that would for the drive down the number of weapons. Would you provide to my office in this Committee Explanation of this specific incident and the steps you took in response to it and updated as soon as a policy changes in the training changes in response to. It thank you, administrator. The federal flight deck officer Program Provides training in the last tsa to deputize volunteer pilots and flight attendants to defend the flight decks of aircraft against violence and terrorism. The program was created in the wake of 9 11 and since then has trained thousands of volunteer flight numbers. The program has not received sufficient funding to achieve sufficient growth. And with air travel blooming again, this is more vital than ever. Administrator, will you champion continued funding for the federal flight deck officer program should you be confirmed to have the term at the top of tsa . Yes, sir. Its a fantastic program. I appreciate all of the captains and first officers volunteering to go through the training into performance function for us. We do intends to provide recurrent training for some indolent on a permanent basis. It would appreciate your support for that appropriation. I appreciate your responses and your time and your service and i yield back, mister chairman. Thank, you senator ossoff. In january, i had the opportunity to tour a tsa checkpoint in the metro air point and i had the opportunity to see firsthand some cutting Edge Technologies that are being employed right now at these checkpoints, as well as all across the country. My question for you, ms. Trader pekoske, is one of the technologies i was able to observe is the tsas Technology Cat machine, could you discuss how the tsas cat machine can provide security at our airports for the committee . Yes, sir. The credential technology is what it does is it validates the authenticity of credentials. You can imagine, if youre an officer in kyiv to memorize the markings on 56 different types of drivers licenses in this country, where the markings on passports from around the world, thats a very difficult job to do. This acknowledge it doesnt automatically. The first thing it does is it verifies the authenticity, the second thing it does, very important for us, for the first time in tsas history were able to do real time risk evaluations by passenger, as theyre standing in front of the officers. That technology is connected to our secure flight database. That will tell us what flight the passengers on, whats passenger saddest is. That ensures that in realtime, rather than 24 hours out, which in the past year, weve already passed four. We can assess it right there on scene. Additionally, independent muck, not having to hand your credentials over to somebody else was a preceded by our officers and appreciative are passengers. The next version of this Credential Authentication Technology will include a camera, a very high fidelity camera, that will allow us to do biometric matching. The camera will take a picture of the person standing in front and will compare the digital image on their drivers license or passport and do a digital match, which is highly accurate. It basically speeds things up, its better security, its better for passengers. I understand the tsa is working on a new generation of these cat machines, cat two . It sounds a good name to the next generation machine that allows for biometric verification of passenger identities using camera and facial matching as part of the process. When can we expect these new cat two machines become more widely used in airports across the country and tell me a bit more about that . Thanks, sir. The cat two technology attaches the camera this is dumb and brings the biometric ability in. The cat two technology has the ability to read additional identity. If you are using a mobile drivers license thats now provisions on some apple devices and soon will be in some andrew devices. You can use that at this validity in the scanning process. The catsuit or some right now is in the start of stage. We specks to reach full operating capability, somewhat distant into the future, we just rebaseline this program. The initial idea behind the cat program was that it would be the largest airports in the country, weve sense reassess that been determined to put it every single airport in the country. At the current funding levels that wont be completed forgiven of time. Thats why my focus is on getting the capital account of tsa at a little more kim mr. It of what we see as close security gaps which c. A. T. Does. Thank you, administrator, senator rosen, york nice for questions. Thank you chairman peters, i appreciate you waiting for me. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Lets talk a bit about transportation and cybersecurity. Tsa, i know you have an enormous and complex responsibility of securing the nations Transportation Systems from both physical and of course cyber threats. With Cyber Attacks on American Transportation infrastructure, while theyre escalating in both frequency and severity, earlier this year, senator wicker and i wrote to both dhs, secretary mayorkas and transportation secretary buttigieg requesting information about their Respective Agency security related processes to detect, prevents and respond to these cyber threats. So, as you know, tsa recently announced new security directives and guidance for measures tos across the transportation sector. Additionally, you mentioned when we met in my office last month that the tsa is going to start to more robustly regulate cybersecurity especially at airports for airlines and for freight rail systems. Mister administrator, would you talk about whats the future of tsa cybersecurity efforts will look like if you are confirmed for another term and do you have the resources to properly address the cybersecurity threats to our nations Transportation Systems. What do you need from us . Thank you, senator, i appreciate the question. Your rights. Weve placed a lot of effort, particularly on the past year plus, in cybersecurity. We begin with the oil and natural gas Pipeline System and issued through security directives last year to do a couple of things. One of them is very consistent with this committee has launched. That is cyber reporting. We require significant business to be presented to cisa which then a series of measures are put in place that requires those companies, 97 companies, to put these measures in place over the course of the ensuring year. Where was the issue today, ill send you a copy of its, a revision to that Second Security directive that changes the approach. It allows whats currently been done to continue, but if operators wants to more tailor their cyber approach in their own Business Model it gives them flexibility to do that. Were going through it prescriptive measures based approach to a performance based approach which we think will be mostly by the industry. Weve got some brilliant feedback from them. This will be a template for our approach to rail and aviation in the future. Thats great. I know you have other security pilot programs in the works. The department of commerce recently published a 2022 National Travel and tourism strategy, which focuses on federal government efforts to support the u. S. Travel and tourism industry. It sets in ambitious fiveyear goal of attracting 90 Million International visitors to the u. S. Each year. Im to reach that goal, the National Strategy contemplates harnessing efficiencies at the tsa checkpoints. Specifically, that one stop security pilot program. My omnibus travel and tourism it includes the one stop Security Program that would allow passengers with baggage arriving from foreign airports not to have to go through additional screening. They bypassed that second round if the last point of departure airport screening commensurate s with that of the u. S. During the last Weeks Congress committee, we talked about how might the creation of the one stop security pet Program Support your mission, support tsas mission and what do you think about that considering some of the new technologies that have emerged in the travel space. Would contactless booking, qr codes, all of those things. What are you thinking about to make travel experience a little more efficient, maybe pleasant . Senator rosen, we want to make the travel experience secure, safe, war fish and in the better Passenger Experience for all travelers going through our system. One stop security, i appreciate your championship of the program. It improves security. It means flights from airports that we have a onestop agreement with are more secure more commensurate with u. S. Standards than they would otherwise be. Additionally, it provides gravitational those travelers once they arrive in the United States they would have to go through scoring again in the United States. We will establish commensurate security levels at this less pointed departures in airports. It has a Significant Technology piece to it. It would mean that we see crowds are technology in our standards to perform internationally, even more so than we do today. I would also look to highlight senator rosen, you touched on it, the Las Vegas International airport. A tremendous report, its the home of our tsa academy west. They also provided us an entire checkpoint that weve turned our innovation checkpoints. If you go into the airport, youve seen this, you see our very latest technology in the benefit there is we can actually bring passengers through our most recent technology and get a gauge for how are they interacting with it. But to think about it . We can calibrate along with them. I thank you. I appreciate that. And any thought about using qr codes or some of the other newer technologies . Biometrics and those . Yes, maam. We are moving very rapidly to use biometrics, because it is better for security, its much more error free. Its touchless and frictionless for passengers. We are working very closely with American Airlines on a qr code Digital Identity that is showing great promise already. So, couple that with the mobile drivers license work we do, those are two different forms of digital identifications. Better for passenger, is much better for us from a security perspective. And quickly. Thank, you i appreciate it. Thank, you mister chairman. Thank you. Senator rosen. Administrator pekoske, that certainly like to thank you, once again, for joining us today to discuss your nomination to deserve a second, second, term as tsa administrator. If confirmed, i certainly look forward to continuing to work with you on all the issues that we have discussed here today. We will have waves welcome you back to the committee to discuss these issues in public as well. The nominee has filed responses to biographical and financial questionnaires. Without objection, this information will be made part of the hearing record. With the exception of the financial data, which is on file and available for public inspection in the committee offices. This hearing record will remain open until 12 pm tomorrow, july 22nd, for the submission of statements and questions for the records. This hearing is now adjourned. This is just over half an hour