more than nine months. some more than a year. while nearly 300 airports across the country go unprotected by the newest, best bomb-scanning technology. >> there are airports around america that really don't realize that in dallas, texas, there are huge amounts of this equipment sitting in excess. >> reporter: a congressional investigation concludes that the tsa is not only wasting $184 million by not deploying security equipment, it is warehousing the one device that can actually detect a nonmetallic plastic explosive. when congress asked why, the report says the tsa told them they ordered extras to get a discount and had no specific plan to deploy. >> obviously, the point of having advance screening technology is to get it out to the field. it's not -- it's not a museum relic. >> reporter: abc news has learned fbi agents planned to make a replica of a newly