Good evening, verne. Welcome. We will now come to order. Like to start off by welcoming mr. Dan bush some of North Carolina to the committee. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Delighted to be with you. Look forward to meeting with you, sir. Subcommittee is meeting today to receive testimony on one year later the implementation of the tsa modernization act. And without objection, the chairs authorized to declare the subcommittee in recess at any point. I want to thank you, Ranking Member lesco, and our distinguished witnesses for joining us today. One year ago this month, congress enacted the First Comprehensive reauthorization of the tsa known as the tsa modernization act. The act incorporated substantial number of bills and provisions that originated in this committee. It stands as a testament to the committees longstanding bipartisan efforts to conduct oversight of tsa. And i thank my colleagues, ms. Watsoncoleman and mr. Catko for their leadership in advancing legislation last congress that im glad to carry on those efforts with Ranking Member lesko in this congress. Tsa modernization act enhances and improves our nations transportation security. The act is too comprehensive to describe in detail in a few minutes that we have, but id like to highlight a few key points. First, the act established a fiveyear term for this tsa administrator to provide stability to the agencys leadership. And sadly, the current chaos and leadership vacancies within dhs have undermined those efforts. Add strait er has been forced t wear two hats acting as both tsa administrator and dhs deputy secretary. I commend the administrator for answering the call to duty, but the role of tsa administrator is a fulltime job that requires fulltime dedication to ensuring the security of our transportation system. I hope the president will nominate permanent leaders to fill many of the dhs vacancies and thus provide tsa with a stable leadership that congress envisioned when it passied this legislation. In addition to establishing the administra administrators term, the tsa modernization act first pushes tsa to enhance its Strategic Planning efforts, number two, secures public areas of airport and Service Transportation systems, and improves the security of air cargo transportation. And we appreciate tsas dedication to implementing the many directives and reporting requirements in this legislation as well as tsas transparency in updating the committee on its progress. And although tsa has made significant progress on implementing the act, im still concerned that tsa has not yet complied with the provisions that pent soresent some of the committees biggest priority in this act. First, tsa is late in providing this committee a report on recommendations to reform its Personnel Management system. And as you know, the subcommittee recently highlighted issues facing the tsa workforce at its hearing in may. Transportation Security Officers serve on the front lines, our nations transportation system, yet are among the lowestpaid workers in the federal government. Theyre also not afforded some of the base, workplace protections that most other Government Employees enjoy. Improving working conditions for these officers is key to tsas evolution as a professional National Security agency and i look forward to hearing more about the status of this important report. And im going to ask at this point unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from the American Federation of Government Employees. Second, tsas substantially late in providing a strategy that was due in february regarding plans to open procurement process to a Wider Network of Technology Companies including participation of Small Businesses. Tsa relies on the small number of vendors today to provide many of the screening technologies in use at airports nationwide. And as you know, small busine businesses, in particular, face difficulties in competing for tsa awards due to limited procurement cycles, high costs of certification, and lengthy testing and evaluations processes. I look forward to hearing what steps tsa is taking to ensure these processes are open and fair to all. And finally, tsa is overdue in providing an assessment of potential enhancements to surface transportation security. As you know, mass transit and other Service Transportation systems are particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks and its important that tsa prioritize completion of these requirements. Tsa must work to come into full compliance with the requirements that a tsa modernization act as soon as possible. And once again, id like to thank tsa and the gao for being here today and i look forward to our conversationenin, and with , id like to turn this conversation over to the Ranking Member, lesko, for an opening statement. Ms. Lesko. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And i want to welcome as well representative dan bishop from North Carolina. Welcome. This is a great committee. Youre going to enjoy it. Very important. I want to thank the witnesses for being here and the tsa officers and other employees that are here from tsa and dhs. Thanks for being here and participating. I am pleased that the subcommittee is meeting today to oversee implementation of last years bipartisan reauthorization of the transportation security administration, the tsa modernization act. Terrorists, of course, continue to target both service and Aviation Transportation in ways that are constantly evolving. The tsa modernization act recognizes this reality and provides direction to the agency at a critical time. Importantly, this legislation marks the first ever reauthorization of tsa since the agency was created in 2001 following the terror attacks of september 11th. In so doing, Congress Fulfilled its constitutional role to provide oversight, accountability, and direction to the federal government and the resources appropriated to protect the traveling public. The tsa modernization act took measurable steps to update many offices and programs within tsa and make the agency more prepared for current and evolving threats to transportation security. Some of these provisions included the establishment of a fiveyear term for the tsa administrator. Authorizing the use of thirdparty explosive detection k9s for passenger and cargo screening. Providing Additional Resources and support to the federal flight deck officer program. Ou objectives for tsa precheck. Now, a little more than one year after enactment, it is prudent for our subcommittee to echo the bicameral bipartisanship that facilitated the passage of this landmark legislation as we examine how effectively tsa has worked to implement the law. I commend add the administrator who is currently serving doubly as the acting deputy secretary of the department of Homeland Security for working closely with congress on this legislation last year and for his teams dedication to providing regular briefings to the relevant committees on implementation status. This work, along with congressional oversight, has resulted in 87 of the laws required ar ed actions for tsa successfully completed or on track for successful completion in a timely manner. Gao serves as the committees watchdog on implementation in its review of tsa programs, offices and security mitigation efforts. So i am pleased that they are represented here today as well. I look forward to hearing from tsa and gao today on the status of outstanding provisions in the law as well as what the agency has accomplished over the last year in fulfilling its statutory requirements. Thank you, and i yield back the balance of my time, mr. Chairman. Lesko. Other members of the subcommittee are reminded under the committee rules, Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. And i want to welcome the panel of witnesses. Our first witness, ms. Patricia cogswell, acting deputy administrator for tsa. Prior to joining tsa, ms. Cogswell held several leadership bosses within the u. S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement and dhs including as acting undersecretary for dhs intelligence and analysis. Our next witness, mr. William roswell, is a director at the Government Accountability office, gaos Homeland Security and justice team, where hes responsible for leading gaos work on aviation and surface transportation security. Mr. Russell has over 17 years of experience at gao and was previously an assistant director in gaos contracting and National Security acquisitions team. Without objection, the witness full statements will be inserted in the record, and now i ask each witnesses to summarize their statements for five minutes beginning with ms. Cogswell. Welcome, maam. Good morning, chairman correia, Ranking Member lesko. On behalf of tsas employees i want to express our appreciation for the continued support of congress, the productive relationship we have with this subcommittee, and as well with the Government Accountability office as well as the authorities provided by the tsa modernization act of 2018. Implementing the tsa modernization act is a priority for tsa. I am grateful for the invitation to testify about our efforts to execute these authorities. Since its creation following the september 11th attacks, tsas n ongoing commitment to ensuring transportation security has enabled public and commerce to continue traveling securely and freely. 18 years later the reality is that Transportation Systems remain highly valued targets for terrorists and their methods of attack are more decentralized and opportunistic than ever. Tsa must meet the challenge of a pervasive and constantly evolving threat environment in both the cyber and physical realms. In meeting this challenge, tsas most important asset is its people. Im very proud of the 63,000 dedicated professionals who make up our workforce and every day demonstrate our core values of integrity, respect, and commitment. Together, the efforts of our workforce secures and facilitates transportation for an average of 85 million passengers, 2. 56 billion in cargo and critical transportation infrastructure around the country. Earlier this year, a significant portion of our workforce went without pay for 35 days during the partial government shutdown. Despite suffering financial and personal hardships, they demonstrate ed to professionali and commitment to transportation security. Were grateful to congress to continuing to explore ways to prevent this from happening again and stand ready to help you in achieving this goal. 2018 was a very important year for tsa and its direction. Not only did we release our strategy and administrators intent, highlighting Strategic Priorities of improving security and safeguarding the transportation system, accelerating action and committing to our people, but the tsa modernization act became law. The first reauthorization of our agency. 2019 has been the year of implementation. We have conveyed through eight progress meetings with this subcommittees staff that as of today, tsa has implemented more than 60 of the 180 requirements mandated by the act, and 72 of those with specific deadlines. Completed requirements include conducting a global Aviation Security review, creating an air cargo division, establishing a surface transportation security Advisory Committee, initiating a Pilot Program to test Ct Technology for air cargo, executing an automated exit lane technology Pilot Program in phoenix mesa airport. Additionally, consistent with the tsa modernization act requirements to grow tsa precheck enrollment and limit the use of precheck lanes to those with known traveler numbers, we successfully conducted two pilots. Both ensuring the feasibility and throughput for tsa use of precheckonly lanes as well as the future lane experience model where nonprecheck passengers designated as lower risk would receive alternative screening procedures. Continuing to evaluate risk and assessing technology, policy and proceed kbrdures in place to ad that risk is critical to our mission execution. Recent examples of where we have done so consistent with the modernization act include updating the federal air marshal concept of Service Concept of operation to prioritized Mission Deployment strategy, focused on highrisk travelers and revised sfwhaeshl ri interfashl Ri InternationalRisk Assessment models. Im incluei including an Advisory Committee, subcommittee on Insider Threat to assess ways to improve airport worker controls. Building on this critical work, tsa plans to produce a roadmap for mitigating insider risk in all modes of transportation. Tsa also recognizes our strategic success defends on our workforce. Tsa commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel of public and private sector Human Capital experts to review tsas Human Capital policy and policy processes and reestablished our National Advisory council which is comprised of adviser from our uniformed workforce. Through recommendations from these groups and others, tsa developed a number of workforce initiatives that we are now implementing. Such as our twotier performance system, our model officer Recognition Program and tso career progression. Chairman correia, Ranking Member lesko and members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before you today. Tsa is grateful for the authorities provided through the modernization act and is committed to implementing them as quickly as possible. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much, ms. Cogswell. Id like to recognize mr. Will russell to summarize his statement in five minutes. Sir . Good morning, chairman correa, Ranking Member lesko and members of the subcommittee, im pleased to be here today to discuss tsa progress to implement the tsa modernization act. As you know, the act included provisions intended to, among other things, improve Aviation Security, screening technologies, oversight of passenger screening processes, and surface transportation. The act also included a number of provisions for gao to review tsas progress. This statement summarizes past work and observations from some of our on going work in assessig tsas actions for selected areas. Overall, tsa has made progress consistent with provisions under the act but can improve in a number of areas. First, in terms of international Aviation Security, tsa took steps to strengthen assessments of foreign airport operators. For example, since our december 2017 report, tsa further enhanced its foreign airport assessments by capturing better data on vulnerabilities so they can be effectively mitigated. In addition, the act included a provide for gao to review security directives for airpor s in Foreign Countries that offer last point of departure flights to the u. S. Tsa may revise or issue new security directives for domestic air carriers and emergency amendments for foreign air carriers when threat information or vulnerabilities at foreign airports indicate an immediate need for air carriers to implement additional security measures. In our review of this process, we found tsa did not fully define how to coordinate with industry representatives prior to updating directives which can lead to some difficulties in implementing needed changes. Tsa had also not yet fully determined whether to cancel our incorporate many longstanding security directives into air carrier security programs in full accordance with tsa policy. We made several recommendations to address these issues and tsa concurred with them. Modernization act also included provisions related to oversight of passenger screening rules. Tsa developed screening rules by considering current intelligence and other factors to identify passengers who may require enhanced screening. In our forthcoming report, we found that oversight of this process has improved. Tsa coordinates rule reviews through quarterly meetings and notifies an expanded set of dhs and tsa stakeholders of rule changes as called for under the act. We also found that while tsa tracks some data related to rule implementation, it does not comprehensively measure rule effectiveness. We recommended that tsa explore Additional Data sources for better measuring the effectiveness of these rules. Tsa is currently reviewing this recommendation. In terms of screening technologies, we reviewed the process used by tsa to deploy those technologies to airports and in our forthcoming report, we found that tsa considers risks in its deployment decisions but has not fully documented them. Importantly, we also found that after screening technologies have been deployed to airports, tsa does not fully ensure that these technologies continue to meet detection requirements even though performance of that technology can degrade over time. We made several recommendations to address these issues and tsa is currently reviewing them. Per the ac