Government Reform Committee hearing to examine transparency issues at the transportation security administration. The office of special counsel has alleged the tsa has become uncooperative in providing documents in its investigation of retaliation against whistleblowers at the agency. This is about an hour and 40 minutes. We will come to order. The chairs are authorized to declare a recess at any time. We appreciate you being here on this important topic. Transparency of the tsa. Today, the company the committee will explore the of the tsa. We will hear about the Inspector General with problems with the gna with the tsa. In order for us to complete its mission, agencies are required office tounredacted special counsel. Tsa is not fulfilling their big obligation to produce documents frustrating the investigation efforts. , it is notyou acceptable to withhold information. We are bothing committed to on both sides of the aisle to help protect and ensure that whistleblowers are protected. You have a right in this government is a Government Employee to blow the whistle. But when the tsa withhold documents and does not allow the osc to do his job, that is unacceptable. Former tsa administrator peter testified before the Committee Last may that the tsa would based its response on whistleblower retaliation on their findings. But now, tsa is withholding the document osc needs to complete its investigation. Tsane way, you have the basing its today, i do not want to hear how voluminous the documents are. There is but one metric that is important to me and that is the percentage. If you dare go to the place to tell us about how many documents you turned over every time you do so, we will ask you, what percentage of the documents did you turn over . Tsa is one of the agencies and most need of the oscs work. Since 2012, the osc received approximately 243 cases of tsa employees alleging retaliation for blowing the whistle. , very few blow the whistle, but when they blow the whistle, to have 243 people say there was retaliation is a number that is flashing a red light and scares us. The committee is cost of the hearing about complaints from tsa employees. It is been almost a year since our last hearing on this management at the agency and is disheartening we find ourselves here again and should not happen. Tsa selectively withhold information from osc by concerted a commonlaw attorneyclient privilege does that does not comply with disputes. Counsel couldhief not identify the client holding the privilege. When pressed, he said quote tsa has no legal obligation to turn over documents to the osc. Whoinability to articulate she represents and her withholding information shows a fundamental misunderstanding for the oscs function. Sent the committee a letter stating quote tsa recognizes its legal obligation to provide documents to the osc and does so regularly. The letter was sent to us on march 4. It was centralist it was sent to us march 1, 2017. It is not about doing it regularly, but it is about doing it always good osc gets to see all of it, 100 of it, not a portion of it, not some of it, not the part you want them to see. The osc gets to see all of it, that means 100 . Furthermore, it should not take a hearing for the tsa to a knowledge and existing legal obligation. Similar to the noncooperation with the osc, the committee has criticized agencys use of sensitive security information. 2014 in 2014, the Agency Issued a bipartisan report finding agency inconsistently designated certain information as ssi to prevent embarrassing information from being make public, but these problems persist. According to the department of Homeland Securitys Inspector General, tsa is abusing its stewardship of the ssi program. None of these reductions will make us safer and highlights the. Rbitrary nature that is as direct as it can possibly be. In a recent transcribed committee,ith the former deputy Mark Hatfield told the committee and i quote you can mark a chinese carryout menu s. S. I. , end of quote. Talk about an abuse of the system. A chinese menu. That was his example. Transparencyh the if they tend to have one thing in common that is Francine Koerner, the office of chief counsel. She seems to be the conduit and the person be continually bump into. She has a checkered history and a duty to share information. The treasuryor department, she was the subject of an investigation for improperly disclosing confidential information of the white house. Now shes advocating for the tsa to withhold information on whistleblower lawyers on whistleblowers. There is something backwards about that. The committee will not tolerate these impediments when it comes to protecting whistleblowers and ensuring transparency. The acting administrator is here today. We are requesting to write this t this wrong. Igh we will follow up. We will recognize a Ranking Member mr. Coming for maryland. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Lastly, our Committee Conducted an interview with Mark Hatfield, who served as deputy administrator of the tsa and worked at the agency for some 13 years. Employeesed that tsa lacked some of the most basic safeguards to protect them against retaliation when they highlight security concerns. The deputy described an agency where in the absence of normal federal employee safeguards, the culture of retribution and maderary personnel acts employees reluctant to raise security concerns. I will highlight some of the statements made by the deputy during this interview. With respect to the subject of todays hearing, the deputy explained quote it was very little transparency. There was a lot of distrust. There was a sense of, you know, in favor and outoffavor employees. End quote. He said everything was governed by selfdirection and tsa. He said the lack of protections for employees gave people the opportunity to do things that were typically not against the rules because the rules were so flexible, but very questionable when you look at it from a moral or ethical point of view. End quote. During the deputys interview, we asked in the absence of normal employee safeguards computed to an environment in which employees did not want to come forward with information about security . In response he said, and again i mean, it dideah, i not take long for you know enough of your compatriots. Taking an arrow in the back. You are either wounded or dead. And you had a decision to make depending on how loud you wanted to be, or how far you wanted to go. A. End quote. People learned that if you spoke too loudly, or questioned was wearing clothes for yourou could do it personal consequence. When congress created the tsa in 2001, it did not provide the agencies and employees with do process protections given to other employees under title 5. The deputy said of the some flexibility may have been appropriate, the tsa was first should have started converting some of these practices to make them more standardized and the federal government practices. End of quote. Gaveplained the structure them the flexibility and the facility and the power to make extraordinary moves they did when it was created. Evolved, ande unfortunately, some of them have just led to toxicity rather than a healthy agency. One tactic reportedly used against tsa employees was directed the assignments. Or forcing employees to move to entirely new locations as punishment for raising concerns. I got to tell you, this is something that really bothered me because we had people who were being divided from their families, one person going maybe to connecticut, and the other one going to florida. Give me a break. And it was punishment. Punishment. The deputy explained that the former assistant administrator ran a very dictatorial department. On than for kissing rather than focusing on improving security, he used the reassignment process to manipulate positions in the help people in favor, and to punish people who were out of favor. The deputy confirmed during his interview that one tsa whistleblower who testified before this committee on april 27, 2016, received a directed reassignment after being very outspoken about security concerns. Deputy, heo the would often raise issues about security including the extraordinary emphasis on speed over quality of screenings. The deputies said that this whistleblower highlighted what many felt was unreasonable reliance on the metric system that was oftentimes beautiful and presentation on flight decks, but very detached from the reality of the frontlines for the actions were taking place. The deputy confirmed what we have heard many times before that tsa has abused the ssi designation to coverup information. He joked that an early years of the agency, you could mark a chinese carryout menu at ssi. You could get on the internet or the library and they would stamp at ssi. End of quote. From everything we have seen, tsa operations have improved over the last two years. The deputys interview last week makes Crystal Clear that tsa employees meet the same protections as other federal employees so they can speak up about the security of American People without being retaliated against. Congress should consider these reforms. Let me say to the chairman, i thank you again, and i thank all of our members for standing up for whistleblowers. Ladies and gentlemen, if we do not stand up for whistleblowers, we dont need to be here. We need to get another job because as far as i am concerned, it would be legislative and congressional malpractice not to do so. Some of the best information that we have gotten is from whistleblowers. We must do everything in our power at all times to protect them. On the other hand, for anyone who Things Congress has received title v protections for employees and other federal agencies, tsa is a case study demonstrating why this would be a terrible idea. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. That anoticed congressman just came in, one of our newest members. Thank you. Thank you. Glad you are here. Members are advised that we do anticipate votes on the floor. We will hopefully get through all of the opening statements. Time, we williate break in the intention is to allow for folks on the floor votes on the floor. Forill hold the record open five legislative days for members who would like to submit a written statement. Lets recognize our panel. We are pleased to welcome the acting administrator for the transportation security administration. The arnold john ross, suspect or general Inspector General for Homeland Security, and caroline lerner, the special counsel for the office of special counsel special counsel for the United States office. All. Lcome you you are to be sworn before you testify. Raise yourd rise and right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give will be the whole truth so help you god . Thank you. Please be seated and we will let the record reflect that all of the witnesses answered in the affirmative. We would appreciate it if you would limit your old testimony to five minutes. I will give you a little bit of latitude, but your entire written statement be made part of the record statement will be made part of the record. You have to straighten it up and get that microphone right in there. Bring it up close. Thank you. Ms. Gowadia good morning distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for affording me the opportunity and privilege to speak to you today about Information Transparency of the transportation security administration. To represent a critical security measure to protect the nations transportation systems. Vital to that Missions Success is how we share information with our many transportation security partners. Demands that tsa and our Partnership Shares information in a timely manner. We were closely across the spectrum of transportation modes to exchange information, solicit feedback, and develop policy guidelines. Indeed, our recent cooperative initiative with industry stakeholders have gilded improvements to our security operations. For instance, we collaborated with airport near carriers to address the passenger volume spring and summer. In the process, we established our Airport Operations Center is a direct communication channel. Leveraging the center, tsa continues to hold daily calls with airlines and airports to screeningaming operations and we communicate with the traveling public to Variety Press releases through a variety of social media and press releases. The transportation Security System does not stop at our borders. It is global in nature. That is why tsa works with partners in place a role and International Organizations with a common vision of transportation security. Across all of our interactions, tsa strive to be transparent and forthright. Asng so serves our interests a free infrequent exchange of information to and from partners, makes us make better decisions and build lasting trust. However, we must remain absolutely vigilant and safeguarding against the release of sensitive information, which could cause harm. We must balance the transparent of intermittent we must balance the transparency of information to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. We ensure that information protection is handled when distributed. Ssi is one category of protected information that is defined by statute. Governing directors mandate that such information be released to the maximum extent possible without compromising security. Because we count on our greatest resource, our people, to enforce these protections, we have updated ssi training and made it in and a requirement for all tsa employees and contractors. In addition, we have developed a comprehensive policy and procedures handbook as well as improved reference guides. Keeping with the spirit of transparency and preserving the Public Access to appropriate information, tsa follows established procedures. Taking together these measures and having the ssi program and the growth is a true learning organization. We must also continue to learn from each other. I encourage my tsa collates to feel empowered invoicing the thoughts, suggestions, and concerns to make improvements in our Workplace Environment and how we do business. That means creating and sustaining an Organizational Culture which values responsible challenges to conventional thinking and invites opportunities to get better. Those opportunities can come from a number of sources be it calling, or an employee attention to an impropriety. Thank we will continue to improve. Many stress that no matter where the challenge comes from, tsa has zero tolerance for prohibited personal practices such as retaliation against whistleblowers. Tsa is fortunate to have employees and stakeholders with a shared passion for success and integrity. We will continue to work hard to exceed expectations. In conclusion, i would like to in the size that each side of informationaring transparently and protecting information when it is required is indispensable to our National Security mission. I have every confidence that the prominent women of tsa today are more than up to both tasks. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Before we recognize the Inspector General, members are advised to have a boat on the floor. I will put us into recess and we will reconvene no center than 11 00 a. M. So you are free to do whatever you want to do. Please be back here before 11 00. Onsoon as the boats are done the floor, we will reconvene. The committee stands at recess. We will come back to order. We were delayed for a moment, because of the votes on the floor, but we will hear testimony from Inspector General ross. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me here today to testify regarding issues relating to tsa. Inspector general oversight of tsas programs and operations making government better. The effectiveness of our oversight depends on our ability to make issues detailed, reports recommendations to resolve issues. We must inform congress and the public about any problems and efficiency we identify through our work. Public scrutiny of what we find is key to accomplishing our mission. We have found that tsa has a history of taking an aggressive approach to restricting information from being made public, especially with respect to a category of information known as sensitive. This problem is welldocumented. My First Encounter i First Encountered this issue when they first apply the ssi designation regarding operations at jfk airport in new york. I appeal the issue directly to the tsa administrator, but it was not resolved to my satisfaction. After it was repeated in our latest report on systems, it was published in december of last year. In that report, tsa demanded redaction of information that has been freely publish without objection. Experts posesty no threat to Aviation Security. Entities outside have made similar findings and i believe the problem is deeply rooted in rooted ends systemic rude and systemic. Systemic. And found that the tsas lack of internal controls that tsa unable to be ensure they were applying the designation properly. Nearly 10 years later, this committee reached a conclusion in a bipartisan report. Two years after that, in 2016, the chairman of the House Committee of Homeland Security on transportation and security, objective to tsas management and use of the ssi designation noting that the improper issuestion of ssi raises about tsa conveniently using the security classifications to avoid having public discussions about certain things that may be unpleasant for them to discuss in public. In addition to these inconsistencies, we encountered instances in which tsa redacted information so widely known that redaction bordered on absurd. For example, tsa redacted claiming ssi, a statement and on