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. There watch never stops. They came to work without pay in a shutdown in 2019. When much of the country remain home amid the covid 19 pandemic. Transportation Security Officers have been part of the recovery of air travel we are seeing this summer. Federal air marshals protect the nation during highlevel incidents with a level of professionalism and integrity that serves as a model for the tsa family. The workforce is an inspiration to me deserving of our supports of starting with the 2023 budget request which provides pay equity for tsa employees and puts them on equal pay footing with their counterparts in the federal governors. If confirmed i will do what i can to advocate and implement and work hard to ensure the workforce is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next 5 years and beyond, tsa does not do its job alone. Our success depends on cooperation between the agency and its partners. We continue partnerships with critical stakeholders, airlines, airports, state and local governments, other agencies, foreign governments, pilots, and flight attendants. Equally important are growing partnerships with the surface transportation sector where tsa works with the oil and natural gas pipeline, passenger and transit rail, freight rail, trucking and bus in just amid the challenges of growing Cyber Threats tsa relies forging on operators of the critical transportation infrastructure for which tsa serves as security regulator. I value organized labor and Resource Groups and advisory panels to provide advocacy to help us remain strong by promoting healthy working environments for our tsa family. I want to recognize these partnerships and thank those entities for the contributions toward the Transportation Systems. Of confirmed i will do what i can to make sure tsa maintains and strengthens these partnerships to ensure our pursuit of the highest level of transportation security works in tandem with facilitation of trade and commerce in the Transportation System. I think this can be for cortical work to provide authority to the department and tsa to counter unmanned aerial systems. I appreciate work on Critical Infrastructure security to include efforts addressing the cybersecurity of the transportation sector. I hope to continue this important cooperation. After 20 years tsa has grown and weve learned how to be the best at protecting our nations Transportation Systems. We have much work to do but i remain committed to tsas future. Distant wished members of the committee i look forward to answering your questions. Ranking member portman recognized for the opening comments. Thank you for your willingness to serve again and thank you for having this hearing. This is a critical position, you know well, it is also one this committee cares about given oversight responsibility is, tsa played a vital role since 9 11 in combating terrorism and ensuring aviation and Transportation Systems are protected. As i walked through the tsa line which i do twice a week i say thank you for protecting us because that is what you do and we appreciate that and we have fought to help ensure tsa personnel are treated appropriately on the federal Government Law enforcement context and we want to do more in that regard. So we appreciate your work and the diligence of the tsa workforce and if you look at the record although others have helped to make your system work better by pointing out flaws, we have been blessed with not having the kinds of incidents everyone feared we would have after 9 11. I will say 9 11 type threats, having been the greatest challenge and the reason tsa was bulked up, those threats have evolved over time specifically i want to talk about how tsa needs to realign to meet those evolving threats, your job is not just to protect airports and air travelers but also surface Transportation Systems. Colonial pipeline is an issue of concern of this committee, we had hearings on it and drafted legislation and enacted legislation to deal with that kind of threat. Exposed vulnerabilities in tsa oversight of the surface Transportation System specifically the pipelines but more broadly, that random attack was the largest attack on Oil Infrastructure in the history of the country. It also prompted you to issue the first ever cybersecurity related security directives for owners and operators of pipelines, required mandatory instant reporting and adoption of mitigation measures. When issuing these directives tsa used emergency authorities to bypass regular soy notice and comment periods. I remain concerned at the use of this Emergency Authority from previously collaborative approach on cybersecurity standards and this committee is here to have concerns about this. Another area of concern is refusal to provide information to this committee about those draft directives to congress. This includes the chairs and Ranking Members of this committee and other congressional oversight committees despite having shared copies of the drafts of these directives to the pipeline industry. You provided them to the pipeline industry but not the oversight committee. The explanation weve gotten is that you wont provide the drafts because they are predecisional and therefore delivered, that confuses me since you already assured them with external Company Officials so today will be an opportunity for you to explain how these documents can be internally deliberative and yet externally shared with the private sector. Thats a contradiction. I think sometimes when things come up to congress they tend to become too public. All i can say is chairman peters and i have a history of treating these sensitive documents in the appropriate way and we need to know what your draft directives are saying to the private sector, and ensure our oversight responsibilities which are incredibly important with what is happening with pipelines and other potential threats are able to get fulfilled. So again, thank you for your years of service, tsa will be an important piece of the security. Work as we get back with more travel. It was packed and i was told we were a d5 where we were paris covid, we are back where we were in summer of 2019. Thats good to hear. Business travel is still off but even with inflation and all the concerns where the economy is headed, your travelers are back, we need to make sure tsa provides this Important Service to protect them and appreciate what they do every day. I look forward to talking about this draft directive. There are three questions this, he asks of everyone who comes before us. I will ask you if you could respond yes or no to each of these questions. Is there anything you are aware of in your background that might present conflict in first with the duties of office for which youve been nominated. Do you know of anything, personal or otherwise that would in any way prevent you from fully and honorably discharging the responsible use of the office that you have been nominated . No, sir. Do you agree without reservation to comply with any requests or summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress . I do. You and i have spoken about concerns raised from the muslim and arab American Communities about many tsa implanted lists, policies, programs but can lead to additional screenings at the airport. We can both agree security for the Airline Travel of the utmost importance, something i am focused on one hundred as i know you are but there are multiple cases of individuals remaining on these lists for over a decade even though theres no evidence whatsoever that they pose any sort of threat. Please tell me what steps you are taking to address concerns with these policies impacting communities, certain communities and have done so for at least 20 years. Thank you for raising the issue and for conversation last week, this is something i want to address completely and fully. For an agency that has Security Response ability for an agency that impacts millions of people to have the trust of the traveling population to know the procedures we have and processes we use are fair, equitable, consider the privacy concerns of every traveler. I commit to you i will do what i can which is substantial, you mentioned in your Opening Statement designation of a direct report to provide input and i endorse that idea. We have an office of traveler engagement that is a direct report to the administrator and i want to ensure those lines, rather than waiting for somebody to come to us, regular scheduled engagement, to visit the communities in the state of michigan and minnesota, to introduce myself to those communities and begin to establish a relationship with them of malevolent relationships that existed other levels in the agency. I want people to feel that if they have a question about how tsa processes their security that we listen carefully, get the facts that are there and make sure when we go back though we arent unfairly causing additional process to any traveler. The other thing im already looking at is in communications with travelers through the redress program i think we can improve what we communicate to passengers to explain what the letter says and what it doesnt mean so you have my full commitment to address this. Connection or magnus was in michigan, he came back, had a very good experience and i look forward to partnering with him and the secretary presenter ghs team that can address this problem. Good to hear that, appreciate your commitment and we look forward to hosting you in michigan in the near term. As our nation continues to recover from the covid 19 pandemic tsas frontline staff continue to work tirelessly to ensure our system remain safe and secure but significant parts of the tsa workforce are underpaid relative to other similarly situated federal employees and other agencies which has impeded tsas ability to retain qualified workers that are so essential for so my question is i appreciate your support on the proposal to address this longstanding inequity that would provide our frontline staff with increase in base pay but i would like you to address the impact of the compensation and benefit disparities on the front line tsa workforce and why do we need this action to rectify the situation. This is my number one priority as administrator, and if confirmed going forward, to fix this pay issue. Our frontline transportation Security Officers the travelers see every time they travel through a security checkpoint on average they get paid 30 less than their counterparts in the rest of the federal government, thats fundamentally unfair. It inhibits our. To recruit and retain talent so i think this is the most important thing that we need to address. You mentioned the president included in the budget request to improve pay across the board in tsa not above any other federal agency but equitable with every federal agency and i think it is so important that we do that. We have in our screening workforce of 20 attrition rate, thats too high. When i watch the average levels of experience in our checkpoints go from 5 years to for years to three that is a security concern as well so i would appreciate your continued strong support of pay equity. It is so important for the success of tsa going forward. Last week this Committee Held a hearing to examine the threat to the homeland posed by Unmanned Aircraft systems and potential expansion of authorities to counter these threats. Part of the legislation im working on with senator johnson would provide authorization for the tsa to conduct activities to protect transportation facilities and assets. My question is can you explain the threat that airports are currently facing for this committee to understand and why tsa needs these authorities for safe and secure air travel. Airports are facing these challenges every day and yesterday we had three reports from pilots of sightings of you a. S. As they were landor taking off, we had a helicopter that had a collision with you a. S. In pennsylvania. When we conduct testbeds we have two testbeds underway, one in miami and one in los angeles but just beginning, those testbeds show us the reports we get from pilots that i just mentioned are the tip of the iceberg of you a. S. Activity around airports because we are testing attack track and identify it women to get a good picture of what is operating around those airports. Weve done a lot of work on this but theres so much more to do. As you said, our authorities expire in october. If they expire without being renewed or refreshed or enhanced, all those activities we currently doing coordination we currently do will stop, this is a growing threat to our Aviation System and we need to continue this work apace and i appreciate your focus and emphasis on providing direct authority to the agency. This is something we need to respond to on an instant. Ranking member portman. I want to ask about terrorism and tsa success, identifying unknown terrorist at Columbia National who was attempting to board a plane in florida. Was this man on the fly list . No, he was not listed on the nofly list. This occurred back in april, four days after he was encountered by Border Patrol in yuma, arizona and when he showed up at the tsa checkpoint given the information he provided to the carrier when he purchased his ticket, we needed to do identical verification work and if the warranted additional enhanced screening, we would do that. Was he on the terrorist screening database . I cant confirm whether any passenger, we dont confirm whether passengers are on the terrorist database, what i can say is the information is passenger provided indicated to us we needed to provide enhanced screening and get further information on his identity and we thought was necessary to provide federal air marshals on the flight he was on. The allow some names on the terrorist screening database to fly . Yes, sir. Why would you allow that . Because we dont think those passengers present an immediate risk as to be catastrophic to an airplane in flight. But we have concerns and we feel we can mitigate those concerns to the screening process and federal air marshals on the flights and working with the fbi terrorist Screening Center coordinated information across the interagency so all agencies that have an interest are advised. Maybe its better to classify settings, if someone is on the terrorist screening database rather than having to bring air marshals into fly with that person, that person should not be permitted on a us carrier, on a us flight. Understand and happy to brief you in the appropriate setting. This is a very carefully developed and coordinated and governed Risk Management process weve used for years. Happy to brief you on it. Are not going to tell me whether he was on that list but sounds like you treated him as though he was. Yes, sir. We treated them with risk we felt he presented and to mitigate that risk. Is continuing to fly . I dont know whether he has attempted to fly but he would be permitted to fly. Is here legally . I dont the answer, that would be a customs and Border Protection question. You didnt find that out in the process of the screening . He was admitted by Border Patrol. A couple hundred thousand people a month doesnt mean they are here lawfully. He was admitted in, most likely awaiting immigration proceedings. Can you explain to this cody why you share draft copies of these directives that you provided with regard to security for the pipeline industry, why you would provide draft copies to the private sector and not congressional oversight committees . We want to collaborate as greatly as we can. We benefit from that process. We have offered, and we have briefed, the security directive you are referencing in your Opening Statement what is contained in that directive. Theres a letter from october of last year where we asked the Inspector General to get involved because we were not getting the information, and they are doing an investigation to figure out what is appropriate. So we have been asking for this for a long time. I see your staff nodding their head when you briefed only staff and wouldnt leave the documents for the rest of us to see including the committee and did it last week because you are coming in here today which we appreciate you being here. Senator peters and i have a history of treating these documents with appropriate level of sensitive, in this case may be reasons to have these documents provided in a classified setting, we understand that but we would like to see them, what you are directing these folks to do, we dont want another Colonial Pipeline and our job is to avoid that, we are drafting legislation to deal with it, not to know what directives are you are telling the pipeline makes our job very hard and i think makes your job harder too so i would ask you today to share those with us. You say they are internal deliberations. We are about to reissue those. I intend to sign that directive when i get back to my office and the reason the briefs were offered last week was because it was in final form so you can see the net result process of our working with the industry and other partners. Why dont you share those with us . We will, you will get a copy this afternoon. Thank you, i appreciate that. Federal courts have been clear when the government voluntarily shares with a nonfederal party they waive any claim that it is distant from exposure. We have been at this for a long time, since october of this year so we appreciate your sharing it with us and thank you for your willingness to step up to serve again. You have a tough job because it is a difficult task for tsa, your pay grades are not that of other federal Law Enforcement officials, the tsa morale problem is real. I have a lot of discussions with tsa individuals and gotten to know some of the through the years, this problem has spanned administrations and secretaries so i am not putting the onus on this administration, youve been in the trump and Biden Administration but if confirmed what is your role in improving more row based on your experience the past 5 years . My role is part of what im trying to do in this take some time is to be very responsive to the feedback we get from the frontline workforce in the workforce across the agency. We do the federal Employee Viewpoint survey every year, we encourage, it closes tomorrow, we have actively encouraged people to fill out the survey results and demonstrate very well to our employees the we Pay Attention to the input that we receive and look at individual location differences so we can figure out what is going on to address the source of dissatisfaction. Pay is a big part of it but not the only part. Part of it is to make sure people view that they have opportunity to grow in tsa and do all the great things we do in the security checkpoint and beyond. We look forward to the draft directive, thank you for your service. Senator portman, good morning, how are you . Nice to be back. Always good to see you. We worked together in this cody for a long time. The chairman was good enough to let me be his wing man. How are you today . Doing great, how are you . Thanks for coming by and i look at the lineup behind you and i see familiar faces. Always a pleasure to see them and you have some Exceptional People around you. My staff has given me some questions to ask. s want to start off. You had an opportunity to serve in this role for 5 years. What are some things you have learned to help you be a more effective leader . Every day is an experience because the agency is complex. We are known primarily for Aviation Security but even that sentence understates the scope of what we do because aviation means airlines, airports, cargo facilities, screening cargo before gets on board an aircraft so it is a complex job. I endeavor to be as close to the frontline as i can because i dont want to be in a setting like this speaking to the Agency Process and have folks hear me say that going he doesnt have that as i wish he would so i want to be a credible voice for my workforce. We talked about this, i am humbled by the terminus workforce tsa has and i view my response ability to support, enable him and given tools to get the job done and they serve us properly. I want to talk about Innovation Task force, the Transportation Security Administration created an Innovation Task force. To foster innovation and improve the Passenger Experience and ensure the agency stays ahead of the dynamic threat environment. You have stated the task force is collaborating with equipment manufacturers and others to find and put the best technology to improve security in the Passenger Experience, give us concrete examples how this task force has responded to the landscape by bad actors who use gaps in our defenses. How is tsa working with Industry Partners on security . It is one of the crown jewels of tsa embedded in our analysis in tsa headquarters but it reaches across the agency. A couple examples of things the task force has done the passengers can see now in the screening process. You put it in context of a Government Agency delivering capability quickly that improves security and the Passenger Experience. First example is the new verification technology. I will take a step further over the next couple months. Passengers can download their drivers license in the states that participate into their apple wallet and you can in this area of Phoenix Airport in arizona rather than handing over your drivers license you tap your phone and it transmits the information. Totally touchless. What happens not infrequently is people forget their drivers licenses sometimes but hardly ever forget their phone so this is a huge benefit. It is better security for us. Next technology is cat scan Xray Technology which gives us a richer picture of what is in a carryon bag to the point we can resolve any concerns we have so we dont need to do a back search and passengers that use this technology when they go to the screening process dont take out gels or laptops because we can have the machine look around the bag to determine what could cause concern. We pride ourselves in working closely with our partners and a final example is we have been working with one of the major carriers on curb to curb biometrics meaning a passenger can show up and use their facial image to validate who they say they are and we developed this significant to the point where they can check their bags with their face. We put it on a conveyor belt, they walk up to the checkpoint, use their face, identity, to get the beginning of the screening process and then they get admitted onto the aircraft so theres a lot less pieces of paper and credentials you need to carry. It is improved security posture. Others have asked about morale already. Whenever i fly, i mostly take trains but fly a lot and almost always going through security i talked to tsa agents and thank them in the role that i play here, we appreciate what they do. I spent a lot of years as a flight officer and a midshipman before that and learned a lot about how to foster good morale. You had good opportunities. What are some lessons you learned in those years that you are able to put to work now . That is very succinct. I would summon up in presence they need to see you there and that you are engaged in the work they do and communications that you experienced in the navy, communications could have been improved, lets get ahead of that as much as we can and continue strong communications. Something that is so important to this functioning of the organization is everybody feels included, nobody feels excluded, they have the opportunity their counterparts have and i want to foster that as i continue on. I relinquish reluctantly the gavel. Thank you for your great service. Good thing i dont get paid by the minute. Senator hawley, you are recognized. Thanks for being here. I have some questions for you and some concerns about your record. Lets start with using arrest warrant as a form of id at tsa checkpoints. He responded tsa established a process where it will accept certain dhs issued forms for noncitizens who dont have acceptable forms of id and he went on to list the forms that tsa would accept including arrest of an alien or deportation or order of release or supervision and notice to appear. Or alien booking record. Have you responded to this . We have not responded but i will respond tomorrow. After todays hearing. Do i have a response . You have tomorrow. Maybe we should have more of these hearings. This is july. Thats a long time to respond to a letter that is 21 2 days long. And permitted to travel on this calendar. Under which criminalizes proper entry, and the Border Patrol a customs officer and serve as a beginning to our Identity Verification process and go into screening. You are receiving the level of screening when people dont have proper identification. Someone who presents an arrest warrant is subject to an in person interview . They have an interview with officers on scene. What are we talking about . Uniformed officers. Not the uniform security directorate. Why would that person not be needed if you have an illegal immigrant . We arent looking at whether a persons legal or illegal but to make sure why not . Our role is to make sure people who might pose a risk to transportation, significant enough to require advanced training or not to fly. Someone who is known to violate the law does not need enhanced screening . There are people every day that violate the law that fly. We look for things related to transportation security. You dont think someone who is by definition present a warrant for arrest necessitates enhanced screening . All those individuals get enhanced screening. It doesnt involve an interview with the federal security directorate and he might get them on airplanes. Enhanced screening is getting on an airplane are two things. I dont understand, for every person watching this hearing who has experienced the tsa screening process it can be onerous, its very long and under your tenure the times for screening have gone up at airports across the country including missouri, it is the sixth longest screening process in the country despite the size of our airport, people who have done nothing wrong, lawabiding citizens, subject to the most invasive screenings but you allow illegal aliens to present warrants for arrest and waving them on the airplane. House that make sense . Not doing that. You let a thousand people traveled airlines and present warrants for arrest. They present those warrants, the beginning of Identity Verification process. Why isnt it the end of the process and say you havent warrant for arrest. Identify who is presenting themselves at the checkpoint and ensure those individuals get the right level of screening, for folks who do not have acceptable forms of id they all receive enhanced screening. Every person who presents a warrant receives enhanced screening before they are allowed on aircraft, if they dont pass that screening they dont get on the airplane. You will have a hard time explaining to folks away all this time in those lines to subject themselves to wall the restrictions you imposed, who are patted down, frisked, asked to step aside and have their luggage rifled through, items confiscated from them, randomly so randomly but you allow illegal aliens with warrants for arrest to get on airplanes at a thousand of them in this calendar year. I find that totally extraordinary. Let me ask about security of dhs from january 20th to february 2nd of 2021, he published a memo that enacted a moratorium on all illegal immigrant removals and a 100 day review of Law Enforcement policies. This was bought by a federal judge. With border enforcement capabilities at a time we were experiencing that. We dont have enough resources to handle the number of people coming across the border. No agency to do their jobs. Your answer, do less enforcement before november 1, 2020. We want to do narrowing enforcement abilities for only three types of illegal aliens, two aliens who entered after november 1, 2020, or those convicted of aggravated felonies and released from incarceration on or after the date of your memo. Thats a significant narrowing. If you issued this in january of 2021, off the hook. Those are enforcement priorities but not all that occur. If allows for enforcement by the officer, those are for resource allocation as to where the resources are most effective and those priorities are the Top Priorities to focus limited enforcement capability on. Im glad a judge blocked your attempt to do this. In terms of what you have done from allowing those with arrest enforcements to fly, to your record of terrible wait times and experience, i cant say i agree with your priorities. Thank you. Thank you, senator scott, you are recognized. Thanks for being here. Can you go through, i didnt hear all of senator hawleys questions but how and what you allow illegal immigrants, permitted to use their ice arrest warrants as form of identification for tsa. Explain why you do that. Thanks for the opportunity. The ice arrest warrant is not a criminal warrant. What it means is this individual has encountered ice and ice has released that person and given them this document as part of identity process for tsa so ice issues these forms and that person makes a reservation with carriers, they come into the screening checkpoint and show us that form. That begins the process where we verify their identity. What we are looking to do is to make sure this is the person who claims to be in front of us and weve advanced this in the past year and 1 2 to working with bostons customs and Border Protection. When these individuals approach the checkpoint with the reservation we do a facial scan. The apps on an iphone returning the result, encountered by Border Patrol or customs officer and they were paroled in the country and we identify biometric lee, they are checked have you been on the border . I have. They throw their id away before they come across the border so how doesnt seem like thats the way it would work. How can anybody explain who they are . Either facial image or print. We havent from individual services. We make sure the biometric is not presented by watch lists. We dont have good information. To say i am rick scott, my information, Border Patrol has no background and use that to get on the plane. That person might not have identification. Border patrol captures fingerprints to ensure they are admissible into the country and to approach the checkpoint, this is the person the Border Patrol admitted into the country. Regardless of the outcome, they receive enhanced screenings, gets into an aircraft in sweden, there are situations that we deny entry as well. You have to have photo id. If i come across the border today, Border Patrol stops me, they take my id, how fast can they fly on a plane . We have processes where we have american citizens every day that lose their identity when they come to the checkpoint. Some approach with no identity whatsoever and we use the same Identity Verification process that is run out of the operation center. They can fly the same day. Provided we validate their identity and we have processes. If they are cuban citizen. You have no information. No information cant validate their identity. They have no id, no background, and their fingerprint, they wouldnt be able to fly. Lets we captured their Border Crossing and check them against the watch listing information we all hold. You have no information. All you have than is they say their name and that day they can fly. Yes although that is rare. You know you have no information from cuba, nothing out of iran, nothing out of north korea, nothing out of africa and nicaragua and fly immediately. As an american citizen that doesnt make sense. Before they get in the aircraft, and bag surge and screening process. We have mitigated risk. They take the print when they crossed the border, we know there print is not matching anybody. As american citizen you know people are coming across the border to harm us. We didnt stop the 9 11 attackers and to me this is unbelievable risk, throw your id away, you are a terrorist, might not be on the list yet but here to do harm and that day, as long as people can fly, doesnt make sense. Different from 9 11. We have a sophisticated system that would detect people that would present harm to the United States, we use that successfully for years now. The Identity Verification process has been in place since 2019. They are doing tests to see how many people get through. How many people get through . How many times does a gun get through . We do covert tests on a regular basis, those results are always classified. We use those covert tests to show where vulnerabilities exist in the system. You acknowledge knives get through, guns get through. Knives and guns never get through the screening. Cannot get through hand screening. We do a full patdown of a person. How about explosives . We detect explosives. It is very thorough. As it needs to be. Thanks. Thank you, senator scott. Administrator, David Pekoske, they have been asking about the policy to accept arrest warrants at tsa checkpoints. My question is when did the tsa make that policy change . It was made in 2019. During the Trump Administration . Yes and we made it stronger since. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. I want to begin by addressing staff capacity concerns and delays that are particularly affecting Hartsfield Jackson in atlanta. As the public returns to air travel after the worst period of us far of the covid 19 pandemic Airline Passengers are frustrated by cancellations and long lines at ports in georgia and across the country. Many airports face delays, staffing capacity issues at tsa security checkpoints, how is tsa proactively addressing workforce shortages through expanded recruitment and Employee Retention efforts . Thank you for the question and support of the team at atl, appreciate it. We see rapid recovery of travel to the point that 90 of where we are overall paris pandemic so three years ago we were 90 of those levels. Our staff is not where it needs to be but in general across the system every day, we are meeting our weekly standards. Those standards are nonprecheck passenger to get through screening within 30 minutes or precheck passenger within 10 and consistently across the system and when you consider 430 airports, roughly 2400 screening lanes, have a report, three or four reports a day that might proceed. Having said that we need more staff than we have today and expect the recovery to continue into the fall and december holidays. We done great work providing incentives but first youve got to keep the current the employees so we try to keep current employees in tsa and we did this, we have 6, 700 people showed up for the recruiting event in atlanta and what we do with all the steps in the recruitment process all at one time. So you do testing and medical process and secure ready forms this streamlines our ability to bring people on board. The other thing that is important is we do have a proposal in the president s budget for 23 to provide equity for tsa and our workforce sees 30 less pain than if we worked in other priorities and went through the standard process and then providing compensation for that we are 30 off. That impact our ability to recruit people and retain folks so thats one of the most important things as agency head, to provide response to questions people might have and if it is implement it. We commit to working with my office at atl leadership including the general manager to ensure the airport has sufficient staff to drag down wait times. I have met with him and commit to it. Appreciate that. I want to ask about airport firearm safety. The numbers increasing and estimated 86 of firearms that tsa detects are loaded. Fox 5 atlanta reported firearm made it through security unnoticed, it was reported the armed individual was not found and may have boarded border the flight. They investigated training and policy changes to prevent incidents like this from recurring, goes without saying and detected firearms present serious danger to Airline Passengers and aviation safety and potential incident is concerning. What steps are you taking for the increasing number of firearms particularly those in georgia and major hubs . Thanks for the question. It is a significant issue. We have had 3400 weapons detected in our checkpoint process. The number compared to last year is the same number when you rate where we are in this calendar year but the rate per million passengers is starting to go down but too high. We are making sure we are very public as people go through the line to remind everybody you cannot bring a weapon into the airport, you can carry weapon in your checked baggage and there are procedures for doing that. We are putting new technology and screening checkpoints. Part of the new technology is the ability for technology to detect this, which we dont have the ability to do, that will be a huge assistance to our officers, when we look at hundreds of images in any shift rotation having those technology assists would further drive down the number of cases like the one you saw. Will you provide to my office and this committee next nation of this specific incident, the steps you took in response and update us as far as the response . Absolutely. Federal flight deck officer Program Provides training at the last tsa to deputize volunteer pilots to defend the flight decks of aircraft against violence and terrorism, the program was created in the wake of 9 11 and trained thousands of volunteer flight crewmembers many of whom received training in georgia but the program has not received switch patient sufficient funding. The program is more vital than ever which is why i am leading an effort to strengthen this program in the federal appropriations bill. Will you champion continued funding for the officer program if confirmed to another term . Yes, sir. It is a fantastic program, appreciate all the captains and officers going through training to perform this function. We will provide a Training Facility in atlanta on a permanent basis and appreciate your support for that appropriation. I yield back. Thank you. In january i had the opportunity to go to a tsa checkpoint at Metro Airport and had the opportunity to see some cutting Edge Technologies being employed at these checkpoints and across the country. The question is one of the technologies was the tsas credential technology machine. Could you discuss how the machine can provide additional security at our airports for the committee . The Credential Authentication Technology is an advancement in our capability. What that does is validates the authenticity of a credential. If you are an officer and have to memorize markings on 56 drivers licenses or passports around the world that a difficult job to do. This technology does automatically. It verifies the authenticity of the document. Second thing is important for us. The first time in tsa history we do realtime risk evaluation by passenger as they stand in front of the officer. That is connected to our secure flight database that will tell us what flight the passenger is on, what the passengers status is, whether they are precheck passenger, or a passenger who may require enhanced screening. That ensures a real time rather than 24 hours out which in the past, we can assess it right there on scene. Additionally, in a pandemic, not having to hand your credential to someone else was appreciated by our officers and passengers. The next version will include a camera. A very high fidelity camera that will allow us to do biometric matching, take a picture of a person standing in front and compare the digital image on their drivers license and do a digital match which is highly accurate. It speeds things up, better security. Better for passengers. Tsa is working on a new generation of these machines. 2 sounds like a good name for the next generation machine allowing biometric verification of passenger identity using camera and facial matching as part of the process. When can we speak these machines to become more widely used at airports across the country and tell me about them. The 2 technology attaches the camera to the system so it brings the biometric capability in. It has the ability to read digital identity. If you are using the mobile drivers license it is provisioned on some apple devices and android devices, you can use the digital technology. The cat 2 system is in the stage that we expect to reach full operating capability in the distant future because we baselined this, the idea was it would be at the largest airports in the country. We have reassessed that and put it at every airport in the country. At the current funding levels that wont be completed for a long time. That is why my focus is the level that is more commensurate with where we see the need to close security gaps. 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 you can watch the rest of this online at cspan. Org. We taken out to an event hosted by the America First policy institute with members of congress and state elected officials. This is live coverage on cspan2. A number of great panels for you today, and were going to kick it off with our election