Millennials are engaging their communities. What is the one issue that will be important for young people in 2016 . Many. Well, i think this gets back to the millennial. It is not a one word and one word answer. We all issues that are important to us. Every issue is connected. Figuring out how to have a bigger lens, solving each issue. My last thing to copy your question, i never really understand why older people are saying they dont understand millennials. You can ask people what they are interested in. How they want to communicate and how they would want to partner with you. Instead of categorizing one group as this Elusive Group we all have the power to make relationships with people. That discussion concerning the issues that motivate their generation is tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. A House Homeland Security subcommittee on the tsa Precheck Program allowing for expediting screening at airports for preapproved passengers. Those who testify include Inspector General john roth and tsa risk officer kenneth fletcher. It is about an hour and a half. I hope that is not a bad omen. The committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on transportation security will come to order. The subcommittee is meeting to examine the Precheck Program of the tsa. I recognize myself for an opening statement. I would like to thank the witnesses for their precipitation for their participation. I know your time is viable. On the offset i would like to express my concern for the victims attack last friday at the Louis Armstrong new Orleans National airport. Transportation Security Officers have the responsibility of securing our nations Aviation Systems. We have seen tsa and lawn for smit personnel act swiftly and bravely to protect passengers from a Security Threat at a checkpoint and i commend them for that. I commend the tsa and Law Enforcement personnel in new orleans and at airports across the country for their dedication. Over the last three years the tsa has adopted a common sense risk based approach. Since the Precheck Program tsa precheck has garnered a positive response from passengers and transportation security stakeholders from moving away from a onesizefitsall approach to Aviation Security. Precheck has change the way americans think about passenger screening in a post9 11 world and i think it should expand. In order to do so this program must grow and mature in a manner that saves taxpayer dollars while sparing the traveling public and reducing risk to aviation. Growth of precheck should not be at the expense of these core objectives. Im concerned that several initiatives related to expansion do not meet these criteria. One initiative is the management in collusion Program Involving conducting a realtime threat assessment to identify passengers who are eligible for tsa precheck on a flight by flight basis through the use of tools like passenger screening canine teams, explosives Trace Detection Technology and behavior detection officers. While this may reduce utiliz may reduce wait times it does not reduce risk to aviation. On the contrary. Passengers who go through the precheck enrollment process and pay 85 for expedited screenings, are not in benefits promised to them. Largely due to the fact that passengers who did not enroll and are unfamiliar are being ushered into expedited screening lanes with little to no information about the screening process. The experience for these travelers is at best confusing and at worst infuriating. When tsa instructs passengers who have been conditioned to take their shoes and belts off are now suddenly told to leave them on. Questions are mean about the effectiveness of the program to detect threats. The Government AccountabilityOffice Released in december 24 teen that tsa did not comprehensively test effectiveness. Tsa tested security layers but not the Security Effectiveness of the overall management inclusion process as it functions as a whole. Tsa leaves us without an accurate assessment of the programs performance. Tsa has cited the random nature as a positive, i believe that the benefits of this unpredictable program has not been shown to outweigh the potential risks. Tsa should not operate management inclusion if it does not address the issues ive outlined. We learned a convicted felon utilize pretax screenin as part of the tsa risk of Risk Assessment program. They determine Risk Assessment using risk all grow them spoken to tsa. In this instance we understand that even though the traveler recognize the individual from media reports, a tsa supervisor allowed the passenger to proceed to a prechecked screening. We must worry not become complacent. Because of prechecks, and that officers should be allowed to use their better judgment during the screening process. We share the same goal to protect passengers who use our critical Transportation Systems every day. The subcommittee looks forward to todays important dialogue on how to enhance riskbased security going forward. I would like to thank you for being here today. I would like to introduce the members of the subcommittee. The gentlewoman miss rice for any statements she may have. Representative rice i would like to note the incident that occurred last friday in new orleans when an individual assaulted multiple tsa officers with wasp spray and a machete. It is a reminder of the risks that transportation Security Officers face on the front line of efforts to protect passengers and maintain the security of our aviation sector. It is a difficult, dangerous and often thankless job. I want you to know, and i feel safe saying i speak for everyone up here, that our thoughts prayers, and gratitude are with you. We are committed to developing solutions to enhance security. For your safety and for the passengers you protect. Ester chairman, thank you for convening this hearing so we can examine the psa paycheck program. The Precheck Program is one of the riskbased initiatives aiming to maintain an Effective Security while maximizing efficiency. When the aviation and transportation security act became law it authorize the tsa to use Available Technology to expedite the security screening of passengers who participate in programs. This allows the tsa to vet passengers through expedited screening and tsa can allocate resources on the ground to focus on travelers we know less about or suspected criminal intent. One Million People have voluntarily submitted i graphic information in order to participate. That makes sense to me and seems like an appropriate balance between effectiveness and efficiency. Certain populations who have not undergone this vetting on the front end are sometimes permitted to use the precheck screening lanes. That doesnt make sense to me. It suggests that the balance tips too far toward efficiency at the expense of security. That was the case when a convicted felon and a convicted member of a terrorist organization used a precheck lane as we learned from the report last week from the office of the Inspector General. That breach is on excusable. We can concentrate resources on passengers who are unknown to us and post the highest potential risk, but when a passenger such as this individual, who was known and posed enormous risk is given access to the precheck lane it demands we take a hard look at the methods used to calculate that risk. That is why we are here. To examine the risk of expanding precheck beyond preapproved passengers. To reassess the methodology, and to assure we never allow the pursuit of efficiency to compromise security. A look forward to hearing from the witnesses here today. I want you to know we are working with Ranking Member thompson on legislation that will be introduced. Our hope is the information gathered today to better inform that measure. With that i think all the Witnesses Today and healed back and healed back the balance of my time. I want to recognize the ranking minority member of the committee mr. Thompson with any statement he may have. I want to note preliminarily that mr. Thompson is a busy man and his is and it is an honor to have him here. And i appreciate his guidance on this subject matter. Representative thompson thank you for holding todays hearing. I appreciate this committees willingness to take a hard look at the vulnerabilities of how the Transportation Security Administration is administering the Precheck Program. As a frequent flyer at long believed that tsa should have a trusted Traveler Program or individuals identified as low risk are provided expedited Airport Security screenings. When the tsa was established in 2001 Congress Granted the tsa the authority to establish a trusted Traveler Program. It took years for the tsa to get over its initial reluctance about modifying its screening operations to admit trusted travelers. John textile john pistole observes credit deserves credit. It makes sense to provide expedited screenings to passengers who have voluntarily submitted by graphical information and fingerprints and have been fully vetted. Today there are one million known low risk travelers in the Precheck Program. That is a good start, but given that 2 Million People fly every day, tsa needs to continue working to bring more americans into the Precheck Program. That is the focus of todays hearing. It is not on the vetted population that are legitimately low risk and receive expedited screening, it is with the tsa has called the realtime intelligencebased methods for identifying passengers on a trip by trip basis for expedited physical screenings. The socalled management and inclusion programs and other realtime screening methods that tsa currently employs that our nations airports have not been scientifically validated as Effective Security approaches. Both the departments own Inspector General and comptroller general have independently found these approaches create security phone or abilities. Last week the Inspector General released a report about a troubling incident involving a traveler who was granted enhanced security screening. Suffice it to say the terrorist and criminal history of the traveler involved should have resulted in tsa to terminate that enhanced security screening was in order, not expedited screening. This is just one incident, and im sure it would never have come to light if not for the courageous tsa employee who came forward to report it. Commonly report to commonly referred to as a whistleblower. Are these procedures appropriately designed to ensure a person who actually presents a Security Risk is not given a lighter screening . I have no confidence based on the public and classified information i have seen that this is the case. I believe the situation demand legislative action. Together with the chairman cap with chairman katko and Ranking Member rice, i look forward to working with the leadership of this subcommittee to bring our concerns to the concerns of care way to get timely action to address the security vulnerabilities. With that, on march 10 2014, previously mr. Roth serves as a director of criminal investigations at the fda. Then he had a long and distinguished career with the department of justice beginning in 1987 as an assistant u. S. Attorney for the district of michigan. He had excellent onthejob training doing very complex organized cases. As did i. Local mr. Roth. Welcome mr. Roth. Mr. Roth thank you for inviting me here today to testify about tsas precheck initiative. I public testimony will focus on the unclassified portions of our inspection report. The majority of what we found is classified or contain security information. I look forward to discussing recommendations in greater detail when we move into a closed session. In october 2011, a precheck at four airports. After that Program Ended in 2012 congress directed tsa to certified i 2013 that 25 of air passengers are eligible for expedited screening without lowering security standards. Congress directed tsa to outline his tragedy outline a strategy to 50 by 2014. To accomplish these goals tsa did the following. Granted some known populations precheck eligibility. Second managed inclusion to allow the general public opportunities for precheck benefits. Third implement it Risk Assessment rules for precheck eligibility. Finally, Precheck Application Programs for membership. These actions have resulted in a massive increase in the population eligible to receive prechecks. First, what processes and procedures tsa uses to fit her grant applicants properly. How the tsa assesses membership eligibility. How the tsa test the process for effectiveness and timel and timeliness. The tsa needs to modify the check vetting and security processes. We determined that precheck communications and coordination need improvement. Our specific findings were classified or contain sensitive information. In addition we responded to a whistleblower disclosure concerning the risk of the secure Flight Program that may create a cap in Aviation Security. The results of that are ssi and have been delivered to the subcommittee. To illustrate the need for modification in the precheck process we issued a report this month that found a notorious felon can notorious felon convicted of domestic terrorism was granted precheck. We received the information after learning the convicted felon was improperly cleared for precheck screening. We learned from this incident that such rules are in adequate to determine that only low risk applicants receive precheck screening. We recommend limited precheck passengers. We are concerned about the tsa response to the findings. They have not accepted the majority of the recommendations. This concludes my statement and i welcome any questions you or other members may have. Chairman katko thank you. What you can talk about in an open hearing, i appreciate your input. We appreciate you being here today. The second witness, mr. Fletcher is a chief risk officer at the department of security at ministrations. Users possible for developing and drying the long range vision and objectives for tsa he is responsible for developing and driving the longrange vision and objectives for tsa. Mr. Fletcher i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you. As you have noted this hearing closely follows the second brazen attack on a checkpoint in less than 18 months. A tsa workforce and the police in new orleans prevented this from ending in tragedy. Acting administrator caraway went to new orleans on saturday to show support. He was inspired by the resilience of all involved. Im confident i speak for all of tsa when i say thank you to the enforcement in new orleans for their Swift Response to the attack. Since its creation tsa has focused on building and enhancing a multilayered screening system including a well trained work technologies intelligence and information sharing, explosive canine detection teams in the federal air marshal service. From nearly a decade tsa applied this and a onesizefitsall approach. The philosophy changed in late 2011 when tsa implemented and Intelligence Driven approach to Aviation Security. Commercial aviation remains the target of terrorist groups who have proven to be intelligent and adaptive. As demonstrated by the development of nonmetallic explosives. One of the most serious threats to aviation. One request is to implement more security measures for every passenger and another is risk based policy. The idea of a riskbased Aviation Security is not novel. A trusted Traveler Program was mentioned. In the 9 11 support tsa should provide riskbased security 2 riskbased security to protect assets. Tsa is able to deploy limited Security Resources to effectively manage risk by concentrating on highrisk travelers. Effective Risk Management involves identifying, analyzing, and communicating risk and deciding whether to assess or control the risk to an acceptable level considering the cost and benefits of any actions. For tsa, effective Risk Management includes how to provide the most effective Risk Security to enhance the value the tsa provides to the American People. As noted by the 9 11 commission perfection is unattainable. And in my view, the pursuit is unattainable. Trying to eliminate all risks results in poor security, unnecessarily burdens the aviation industry, and puts pressure on civil rights and liberty. A key component to the approach is the Precheck Application