And then a British Parliament committee on how scotland would be impacteded if the uk leaves the eu. And the conduct of irs commission is looked into. Peter neffenger testified about the agencys recent surge in wait times at t. S. A. Security checkpoints in u. S. Airports. He appeared at a House Homeland Security hearing. It is just over two hours. The committee on Homeland Security will come to order. The committee is meeting to examine the security challenges brought forth by increased passenger screening, checkpoint wait times. Before i begin, i would like to take a moment of silence for the victims and their family of egyptair 804. I now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Today we face a crisis at our airports. We have all read the headlines. Threehour long security lines, 438 American Airline passengers stranded overnight in chicago ohare, travelers from atlanta, charlotte and alaska waiting forever to be screened causing missing flights and further delays. More than 3,000 bags have failed to get loaded on to planes in time to phoenix. And 80 increase in wait times at jfk airport compared to this time last year. This is unacceptable. It is time for congress to act. Administrator, the American People are angry and frustrated as we head into the busiest travel season of the year starting this memorial day weekend and they deserve answers. This crisis didnt come out of nowhere. Airports and airlines have been sounding the alarm for months. There is no doubt that part of the challenge we face is a high Terror Threat environment. The wait times are not soaring because of the longer lines but because of the increase in demand and the right people to put the right place at the right time. Change is not happening fast enough. Admir admiral, i know you are working to reform t. S. A. s broken bureaucracies and i hope to hear how you will confront this situation. This committee and the house of representatives passed measures to help this. Our measures accelerate the expidited screening. Unfortunately, the senate has failed to pass these bills which is unconsciousable in my judgment. I mind like to send a message to the colleagues in the other body it is time to get moving. The American People are fed up. We will introduce another bill to attack this problem and i hope this time we can get it to the president s desk more quickly. In the coming months, we will take a broader look at the t. S. A. Including the first authorization of the agency will will give us an opportunity to make wider reforms and longterm changes. We plan to take up legislation to enhance t. S. A. s Screening Partnership program. As i noted, we must take into account serious aviation threats we face. I think the events of the egyptian airliner demonstrate that. Investigators are working to determine the cause of the egyptair crash but one thing is clear terrorist are trying to bring down airplanes. I led a group to Northern Africa to look at the safe havens and walked away thinking screening is inadequate at some airports with direct flights. Airports like cairo lack full buddy screeners to contact ieds, and lack screening employees on the terror watch list. This is a concern because militants are trying to recruit insiders and inside jobs to take down passenger jets. We have seen this twice in recent months including in attack in somalia and one against a russian jet in egypt. This is not just a problem in the middle east or Northern Africa. This past december, the airport in paris that has 50 direct flights in the United States every day, they fired 70 employees who were suspected of having extremist connections. 70. We have to get help we have to help our foreign partners weed out these extremist. The house and this committee passed two bills to ramp up security at overseas airports and yet again these bills are sitting in the senate stalling, waiting for action. It is not thinkable. It is time for the senate to act and the president will sign them into law. We cannot afford further delay because american lives are at risk. As we adapt to the evolving threat, we must make sure agencies like t. S. A. Adapt their Business Models to keep travel flowing smoothly. Terrorist would like nothing more than to undermine our own economy by allowing air transportation to grind to a halt. Admiral neffenger, we have given t. S. A. The resources asked for to make screening more efficient, Congress Granted a recent request to reallocate 34 Million Dollars to hire 800 new t. S. A. Officers before july and pay for additional overtime for existing personal. Today we expect you to tell us how you are putting these resources to work and how you are going to address the crisis at our airports once and for all. I want to thank the admiral for being here and thank you for your service to our countgy with that the chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the committee. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to thank you for calling todays hearing. I would also like to welcome administrator neffenger and thank him in advance for his testimony. To be clear the flying public expects and deserves efficient, space, secure, reliable air transit. The Transportation Security Administration finds itself at the center of the federal government efforts to in sure secure passage of passenger and cargo. The important of this role can hardly be understated. The agency is at a critical point in its short history. T. S. A. Is still implementing reforms after covert testing last year revealed serious gaps in security screenings. Now, long lines and recordwait times at airport checkpoints are having spillover effects throughout the entire aviation system. Passengers are understandably anxious as they hear stories of fellow passengers who despite best efforts missed flights. Asking passengers to arrive three hours before domestic departure is not acceptable. In addition to the stress of wearing the right clothes, deciding to check a bag, avoid pack and prohibited items, and make tight connections, the stress on the flying public is felt most severely by airline and airport personal. Unfortunately, it is the men and women who are the face of t. S. A. Who get blamed. The transportation Security Officers. Travel volume substantially increased this year, yet t. S. A. Has failed to keep pace with this growth. As a result, there is an insufficient number of transportation Security Officers in our nations airports. The Current Situation where we have too few screenings and far more passengers did not occur without warning. In fiscal year 2011, there were approximately 45,000 t. S. A. Screening 642 million passengers. In fy 2016, t. S. A. Had 3,000 fewer tsos screening roughly 740 million anticipated travelers almost a one million more passengers and 3,000 fewer screeners. In fy 2017 budget, t. S. A. Requested funding to hire an additional 320 tsos. For those of us familiar with travel volume trends, this did not seem like enough. More recently, t. S. A. Has the chairman indicated, has announced its plan to onboard 768 tsos by june 15th. Increasing staff and resources is a good thing but only if the proper vetting and training occurred before more are added. Administrator neffenger, i want to know if t. S. A. Has the money necessary to achieve its mission. At secretary johnsons request congress recently reprogrammed 34 million in t. S. A. Accounts to pay for overtime and other costs associated with responding to the wait times crisis. While these funds aid t. S. A. In addressing Staff Shortages in the shortterm, moving money around is not a substitute for infusing new money into an operation. T. S. A. Should have access to all of the Aviation Security flees collected by the flying public to bolster security. Yet the passage of the budget act of 2013, t. S. A. Is required to divert 13 billion collected in security fees toward the deficit reduction for the next ten years. This year alone, 1. 25 billion has been diverted. Presently i am working with the Ranking Member on the Transportation Committee in his efforts to make sure t. S. A. Can attain the fees they collect and put them back into our aviation system. In the absence of more money, new resources is absolutely important. Congress and t. S. A. With the bandaid fixes are complex. Patching and plugging holes is not the answer. Moreover, dismantling t. S. A. Is not the answer. Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are calling for a return to the pre9 11 privitization model. After the downed egyptair plane is still under investigation this would not be the way to go. The benefits of privateization are minimal. We need to look for longterm solutions. One solution, as i indicated and written a letter to a, is to assign the nearly 2500 tfos assigned as behavior detection operation to the check screening. The spot pram has been subject to a joa review and it is questionable about its success. But we spent a billion dollars on this program and we could put that money to good use. I look forward, mr. Neffenger, look around the Committee Room here, all of our members use the airports to come to work every week, i am sure, like i, they are anxiously awaiting your testimony. I yield back. I thank the Ranking Member. Other members are reminded Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. Pleased to have admiral neffenger here today. Admiral Peter Neffenger is the sixth administrator of the transportation skusht administration and leads security operation at more than 450 airports within the United States and a workforce of almost 06,000 employee 60,000. Prior to joining t. S. A. , admiral neffenger was the 29th comdodd of the coast guard. We thank you, sir, for being here and thank you for your service. Your full written statement will appear in the record thchlt chair now recognizes admiral neffenger. Thank you and good morning chairman mccaul, Ranking Member thompson and distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I appreciate the committees oversight of t. S. A. Security operation and making sure our agency has the important tools we need to accomplish this mission. Since take the oath last year i have traved around the country and the world to meet with all levels. Their sense of duty and commitment to the National Security issue is exlimpery. Last week egyptair flight 804 crashed into the mediterranean. We dont know what happened to the airplanes but it is a reminder of our mission. The threat is very real. And today i would add in just ten months i have undertaken a systematic and deliberate change in the t. S. A. Renewed focus on security, revised alarm procedures and made investments in technology and retained the entire workforce. We are holding our standards to high accountability and supporting thefront line officers in the critical mission. We have reinvigorated relationships with the airlines and trade and travel industries and working with congress and this committee to address our security mission. I am investing in our people and with the help of congress directed overhaul to how we train. We established the first ever t. S. A. Acadmy and this training enables us to achieve consistentancy, develop a common culture and instill values and raise performance across the workforce. Elimination of the arbitrary use of directed reassignments, restrictions on permanent relocation cost, and significant controls on bonuses at all levels. We are overhauling Management Practices and conducting review of acquisition programs, building a planning programming and budget execution process and building a Human CapitalManagement Program for recruitment, promotion, assignment, and retention. Screening mission requires a similar reassessment. We project checkpoints will screen 740 Million People this year. In 2013, t. S. A. Screened 643 Million People. That is an increase of a hundred Million People in four years while the fulltime workforce has reduced by more than 12 . That and the renewed focus on security are significant contributors to the situation we face today. We have a challenge this summer which we are aggressively meeting head on. We stabbed a command center to monitor checkpoint screening operations on an hourly bases and tracking volume, staffing, lane availability, and actually wait times and allow us to address concerns in realtime. It includes staffing from airlines and Critical Industries associations and are making daily calls to plan that days operation and what we foresee in the coming days. Our goals are to make sure we have effective screening and maximize the screening to achieve shorter line waits. We are providing more overtime and 768 new t. S. A. Officers and with had help of congress we are moving parttime to fulltime to help improve retention and moral and help with the wait lines. Thank you for supporting these effor efforts. Behavior detection officers have been given the goahead to go back to the screening checkpoints. We have employed additional canine teams and activated a law enforce to be available to move to areas of greatest needs. We are seeing enrollments in t. S. A. Precheck that is more than three times what we saw last year at this time. To intensify the focus on Mission Effectiveness i brought in new staff. A new deputy administrator and other leaders. I directed changes at the airport levels. At chicago ohare a new team is overseeing screening and with the support and talent of the workforce immediateed adjustments have dramatic improved the output even with the volume increasing. We must match operation capacity to the demands of projected and real screening value. We are continuing to work with the department and congress to allow us to match resources with mission demands. Finally ingressively pursuing longterm solutions to the growing val aof Airline Travel we established a new task force. One example is the Public Private partnership in atlanta where the first two automated lanes became oprationale this week and they are aushld improving efficiency and we look forward to the results of the first couple weeks that operation. We have similar efforts lines up. This Summer Travel season is going to be busy and in the short time, t. S. A. , airlines, airports, and congress can improve the Passenger Experience while maintaining the security we need. The t. S. A. Is better to securing better efficiency while remaining focused on the Terror Threat. Guiding principles that expressed in my administrators intent is focus on people, commit to excellence and invest in the future. I will continue to do this in until we achieve success in every location and every employee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and the committees support and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, admiral. I recognize myself for questions. All americans experienced the horror on 9 11 of airplanes being turned into cruise missiles against us and turning against us and bringing down the world trade center, hitting the pentagon and attempting to hit this building. It still remains the crown jewel of aviation. We know that alqaeda and the ar Arabian Peninsula is intent on this and we know isis pulled off downing a russian airliner. As mentioned in my opening remarks, i recently had the experience to go to northern sinai where isis exist, and went to the cairo airport that has a daily flight in the jfk and i have to say i am concerned about the state of security there. And i am concerned about the state of security at charles dugal where 70 extremist were weeded out of the process. This is the external operation that keeps me up at night. Can you tell me, sir, what t. S. A. Is doing to protect these last points of departure airports . Particularly in the high threat areas. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and like you i am very focused on the safetyf of inbound flights to the u. S. There are a number of things we do for last departure and first is foremost is working with the International Community to try to raise Global Standards to the highest possible level. With respect to last point of departure airports we put additional standards and requirements for any airport intending to fly directly to the United States without stops and that includes screening of passengers, cargo, the aircraft itself and vetting of any individuals that are on board those flights coming to the United States. In addition to that, following the metro jet incident, we put a number of additional security measures in place at certain airports of interest and concern in the region that added significant and additional requirements to aircraft and personal intending to fly directly to the United States from those lpds. There is legislation i mentioned in the senate that has not been passed that would help you and give authorities to assist these airplanes overseas are flights coming directly into the United States. It has been stalled. When i didnt see full body sc