You plan to get us off the bottom . Mr. Hefenger i start with the fact that everyone rose raise their hand and took an oath of office. How many people in this country do that . Im sure their eyes were open. They knew it was not the most popular job in the country. But they said i want to be the face of security for the traveling public. That is where morale starts. What is where does morale fail after that . I go right back to the mission and my dedication to the coast guard told me it starts with the mission. And then you have to talk about that mission. And you have to train to that mission. And you have to measure that mission area. When i come to work, i know i want to know that i am being given the tools and the training to do it and they are backing me up when i have to make decisions. I think there is a lot of training to that and there is a Workforce Engagement needs. Representative thompson people who apply do not have to go back. Now we are hearing, when they tried to get recertified, there is a tremendous backlog so that members card expires before the new card comes. We would like for you to look at that. I dont want us to create a bigger problem by alleviating the second trip and we didnt fix getting the card that to the person. Those workers who work on military installations, on selected instances, are being required to get an additional card. It costs about 200. It has the same information that the twixk card has. Can we see some reciprocity so that those workers dont have to pay for a second card . Mr. Heffenger i am not familiar with the concern your raising. But if i can get with your staff, i can look into that. If we are collecting the same information, we can verify the same things. I think we can work on reciprocity. Representatives thompson and the issue of getting the cards back before they expire . Mr. Heffenger yes, sir. I know it has been a challenge. It is a focus area for me. I would like to know what the backlog is and are there things that can dramatically speed up that process . Representative thompson thank you very much. Representative rogers you have some in her should to deal with. You have some employees that you would like to put the fear of god into their heart or nothing is going to change. I have seen some good administrators precede you. But i want you to understand that youve got some folks that really believe they dont have to change. You will be gone before they are. You need to make them understand that is not the case. It cannot be slight changes. It has to be dramatic changes. Or it will be the same results we have had for the past seven years. The latest ig report that has upset some many people is identical to the last three edge reports. That is unacceptable. That is people who are unwilling to do anything different and dont believe there is any consequences for not doing anything different. So i hope you and still and understanding in them, if they are gone. And if you cannot do that, then you ought to be gone. I think you agree with that. One concern, i heard the chairman make reference to the project program. A vary good program as far as its goals. The problem we are running into is that frequent travelers, the people who want into this program have gotten into it. The fsds at the airport have not adjusted the lane activity to accommodate that traffic. So now you spend more time in the precheck line than if you go into the priority lane. Whatever they call it. And just go through the typical take your shoes off type. That is silly. People are going to stop going into the project program. They dont find it enhances their ability to get through faster. I hope you will address that with air force airport folks. The method of getting safe people that we know through through an efficient manner, it is the more infrequent travelers that might have a problem. You understand that explosive detection canines are a valuable asset. They are the best asset you have. I am not going to talk in an open setting about the efficacy of the equipment or the personnel, but as soon as we are back from our august district work period, meet with you and go over in detail what shortcomings have been. I am vary very familiar with this subject matter. Something needs to be done to remedy that. I hope you will need your commitment to meet with me in september. That is all ive got. Think you, mr. Chairman. Representative jackson lee thank you for your presence here today, vice admiral. Let me thank you for your service. It is interesting that i followed my good friend mr. Rogers. I had the privilege of sharing the Transportation Committee and served as his ranking when he was chair and we are, if you will young but we have been here for a little bit. So we are really grateful for your service. As i thank you for your service let me take a different twist and say to you that i am vary proud of the men and women who serve every day on the front lines in many ways, but in particular today of transportation Security Officers. Over the years, i have argued for increased professional Development Training, to recognize that morale and commitment have a lot to do with pay, respect, and professional developer and training. I will be posing questions within the short amount of time that i have. Again, my sympathy to the Hernandez Family for mr. Geraldo hernandez killed in of duty as a transportation killed in the line of duty as a transportation security officer. We should never dismiss the fact, in all of the issues that you have to deal with, since 9 11, there are probably millions of tsa screenings, tso screenings. And any number of stops that the tso officers make a and i hope you acknowledge that. Beginning to correct starts with acknowledging service. I think it is vary important to do so. Let me also say, however, in addition to that, we have allegations of mismanagement wasteful procedures, retaliation against whistleblowers, low morale, security gaps. But i never want to leave this table without saying thank you to the tso officers. I make it my business as i travel through airports across america, to say hello, to ask a question, or to watch their procedures. Again, if i might, professional Development Training is crucial. So let me just ask you a series of questions. I think you can do better if we get rid of sequestration. You need the money placed in the right places. I agree with the use of privatization on the basis let me correct that. I believe there is a place for the private sector, in particular dealing with technology. I might have misheard you when you said a third tsa, that it was a private sector. I am against privatizing airports and tso officers. I think we need a professional, trained group. I want your comments as it relates to a professional, trained group. I would be interested in you being able to craft an effective utilization of these individuals with a more effective use of the resources you are given on that. I want to take note of the fact that a young man in dallas was so in love with his girlfriend and he recently ran past security. I would like your comment on that. We shut down the Newark Airport a couple of years ago with another enamored young man who ran to security. And i want your comments on tsos being the most is a buffets and america. How do the most visible faces in america. I hope i can join mr. Rogers and others for that gift briefing. If you could that scif briefing. If you could comment on those. Mr. Heffenger thank you first and foremost for acknowledging the workforce. I couldnt agree with you more. The mission of tsa is delivered by the frontline transportation Security Officers in this country. I cannot say how important they are to the success of this program but i cannot thank them enough for the work that they do. I do that myself whenever i travel and certainly now. With respect to budget, i think you are right. Sequestration will be a challenge for every Government Agency that will be subjected to it. I hope that congress is able to pass a budget resolution that will eliminate sequestration and allow us to have some certainty Going Forward. To make sure it was clear what i was saying with respect to third party what i was really speaking about was incentivizing have a sector entities, private sector businesses to help develop the technology that we needed to the future. I think we can do that in a competitive way to provide incentives that dont have government taking on all the risks of development, dont have government buying huge Capital Outlays that outlays for equipment that later becomes obsolete. The bdo program as you know there has been some controversy about that program. There have been a number of gao audits. One has looked at the efficacy of the program and the work that is done. I know the tsa contracted out a thirdparty overview of that program. That thirdparty spent two years collecting data on that program and running tests. That was submitted as a report. There is a question about the underlying concerns. I know we are in the process of completing a report that shows what we believe to be the scientific underpinnings of that. That said, i understand the concern with the use of that. From my perspective and im not clear on how i feel about the bdo program yet, being relatively new but from my perspective, a link to validated underpinnings, if i can so effectiveness with behavioral viewing, then i think it is an effective tool in the security toolkit. I know Law Enforcement agencies around the world use behavioral indications and determining whether they have problems, whether you are a beat cop or you are looking at another situation. Im looking forward to reading that report that was done. It looks at the scientific underpinnings. And i look forward to discussing the further with the committee. The Security Breach at dallas airport, that you mentioned, that is of great concern to me. For a couple of reasons. One, i am vary concerned about our i am very concern about the safety of our frontline workforce. The attack in new orleans earlier this spring, those are vary real threats. You have to be careful of that. So any potential for somebody to breach a barrier runs the potential for not just a safety issue, but also a security issue. So i ordered an immediate review of that incident. More importantly, this goes back to the systemic issue. I dont want to go around and whacking off everyone a problem there is. I want to look at the system and understand if we have an issue with security at our check. Once that is the barrier once again, that is the barrier between a sterile and the nonsterile areas. I will share that with you when i have it. Most importantly im going to look across the system and see how they are doing this. Representative jackson lee thank you. I would like to put this in the record so we can discuss it with her and discuss it further. Representative cap go representative katko i want to thank you for the job that your employees are doing every day and day out. One of the areas i want to focus on a little bit today is the issue of access control. We kind of touched on it but it is a gaping hole in security at the airports nationwide. Within the last year or two, you have had a major Drug Trafficking ring operating out of the oakland airport. You had another one operating out of the dallasfort Worth Airport that had implications in a briefing that is not necessarily probably. And an individual who smuggled as much as 160 guns, loaded including assault rifles on airlines. And brought them up to new york city. I think these incidences point out a major problem with Access Controls at airports. I recently had to had a bill passed in our subcommittee. I would like to hear your thoughts on the axis control issue. Should there be minimum standards at all access point that these airports . I would preface the question further by saying, it is clear from the dallas case that the viper teams that are used to do the random screening at various points would be monitored by the bad guys at dallasfort worth and they were simply avoiding them. That is not going to work Going Forward. With that overview, i would like to hear your thought on Access Controls. Mr. Heffenger thank you. I agree with your concern. As you know, those incidences let me back up a little bit and talk in general terms. This should be a known interested population. Everyone of these workers gets vetted for background. There is a question about how far back we need to go in the future. They are continuously vetted. Any credential holders are continuously vetted in the terrorist screening database. And currently, there is a periodic revetting against criminal databases. That doesnt guarantee that you dont have a criminal population. So what do you do about the potential for criminal activity or worse in a known interested population . You introduce uncertainty to that population and you try to grow a culture of belonging to that organization. I absolutely agree that access should be reduced to the minimum necessary to ensure operations of the facility. My experience in the poor environment, when we looked at the maritime sector right after 9 11, a wideopen environment for obvious reasons. You want stuff to freely move in and out. The first answers we got back from the maritime cemetery was that it is impossible to close this down. But over time, the maritime secretary was that it is impossible to close this down. But over time, we did it. Periodic, random, and other types of inspections that you are subject to come a growing sense of culture that we are all in this together. As i look at the aviation environment, i look at the hundreds of different employers of people who hold. Badges and you think, how do i get that group of people to think as one . To recognize, hey, this is their airport . So there is a campaign out there that a combination of reducing Access Points increasing setting specific standards for those Access Points, how you inspect those standards, keeping that randomized expectation of inspection. I think that helps. You need a number of these things. And then growing a sense amongst the workforce the large percentage of which are good, solid, hardworking people that, look, it is their response ability to help release this as well. There are some airports who have done this and have done it a very effectively. And i would like to look at their best practices and extend those across. I am meeting with the airport executives, the airport council. This is a top issue of concern for me as well. Representative there are a couple of representative kat ko there are a couple of airports doing this. Those three airports are all going towards 100 screening of employees. We hear from airports across the country that is something i doable. I would like to hear your thoughts on that aired on that. Mr. Heffenger i want to see what 100 secured it looks like. I want to hear from them how they achieved it. What are the challenges . And what are the ongoing applications . I need to be able to address that when i meet with the airport to claim they cannot do that. So i am on a Factfinding Mission over the next month or two to educate myself as to what the various arguments are. What i would like to do is to continue have continue to have this conversation Going Forward. Representative rice mr. Secretary, i would like to talk first about diversity. I think gender diversity is a goal for most public and private sectors. But i think for tsa, it is an absolute necessity given the traveling public that they are interacting with on a daily basis. What percentage of tsa employees are women . Mr. Heffenger i dont have that number off the top of my head. Although i have asked for that. It is one of the things i and talking about this week. Diversity is critically important. Anecdotally speaking, i am pleased to see what looks to be a vary diverse frontline workforce as i travel around. I will get you the percentage of women and break it up into categories. I think that diversity is the key to success in an organization. Always has been. It is one of the Biggest Challenges we face in the coast guard and the military not just recruiting, but retaining a diverselooking workforce. We found out early on that recruiting wasnt enough to call yourself diverse if there was no pathway of the organization. What i commit to you is that it is of critical importance to me across the organization. Not just in the entrylevel, but throughout the organization to look for opportunities throughout. Representative rice i am glad to hear you say that. I believe there are limitations for female employees that male employees do not have. If they were to have a female employee and baggage needing to be moved to the passenger pat down area because of the need to have more women women only being able to pat down women and that leads to some level of frustration that women have because they are facing those kinds of limitations and room for upward mobility that men dont have. I am happy to be sitting here with you. I think you are a great choice. I think your focus on trying to improve the morale for your employees is a good goal. And i want to offer that we are here to improve your morale, such as it is. You are in a truly thankless job. I look forward to seeing you out in l. A. I am going to look at lax airport on the 18th of this month. We stand ready to help you in any way that we can. Mr. Carter admiral welcome. I can in no way speak from members of this committee, but for myself and i suspect the Committee Members agree with this, we wish you success. We want to see you succeed and we want to do everything to help you. I want to touch quickly on two things. First of all, understand that i represent the entire coast of georgia. On the coast, we have two major ports. We have the savannah court, the number two container port on the eastern seaboard. And we have the number two rolloff for in the nation. Both of those ports are vitally important. In both of those ports, we use the turks cards the the twic cards. The transportation workforce identification card. I am vary concerned. First of all, an individual used a card to gain access in a Norfolk Naval station and killed in able officer. Twics holders have committed crimes in port areas. They can be used to commit crimes on ports. The proposed rulemaking for twics discusses multiple possible scenarios where the ca