Good morning. Today we are considering the nomination of administrator for a second term. To lead the Transportation Security Administration. Welcome back to the committee. Senator cantwell has a lot going on i am a little late i had another obligation i agreed to come over and help out with a hearing. Tsa employees keep the airport running day in and day out it is critical we rise to be increased demand and with the quality experience for travelers. Congress created tsa in the wake of the september 11 attacks to strengthen security of our nation Transportation System and to prevent future terrorist attacks. Over the past two decades tech tsa has deployed technologies like screening capabilities and to address new National Security risks like cybersecurity. Tsa must adapt including those of unique circumstances of Public Health crisis like the pandemic at the same Time Resources such as canine Detection Team continue to play an Important Role of keeping a safe. We know in airports across this country screening over 2 million passengers one. 4 million checked bags and other Dangerous Items to help secure the security of over 24000 domestic flights and 3300 Outbound International flights per day. We know there have been delays at the airport we had no lines on sunday night with a celebration of the situation with workforce issues as there are at every place of employment around the country but fourth of july was a long weekend and it tsa screened 11. 3 million travelers that is up 3 percent of pre pandemic levels and friday july 1st was the busiest day since the pandemic with two. 5 million individuals passing through tsa checkpoints. Tsa needs to keep up with the rising demand and address any staffing shortfalls i look forward to talking to about that also with a critical surface transportation to connect citizen manufacturers and retailers an economy with 4 million miles of roadways with 140,000 miles of real tracks, 470 tunnels and two. 8 million miles of pipeline. Last years Ransomware Attack on thene pipeline thread and 50 percent of the east coast fuel supply and get another example where we need to protect our energy infrastructure. We have your experience in addition to yourea years of experience it tsa providing Counterterrorism Services to Government Agencies during her years in the private sector. You have ava distinguished career serving as the coast guard commandant the second in command also serving as chief operating officer with the component acquisition over our mass term business of administrationno a master from Columbia University and from Us Coast Guard academy you are more than ready as indicating whoever they are. They seem to be in your camp. So with that i will turn it over. [laughter] ing] thank you so much, senator klobuchar and we want to join you in welcoming admiral pekoske back to this committee. We appreciate his continued willingness to serve. The 9 11 attacks led to the creation of Transportation Security Administration, and its placement within the department of homeland security. I was a member of the house of representatives 20 and one half years ago when we did this. Tsa is charged with protecting the nations Transportation Systems while also ensuring the Free Movement of people and commerce. Tsas nearly 60,000 employees play a Critical Role in securing our nations transportation modes, including commercial aviation, general aviation, mass transit systems, freight rail, Passenger Rail, highways, pipelines and ports. The 43,000 plus transportation Security Officers who screen air travelers every day are among the most visible part of tsa through the public but there are many others in the tsa workforce including transportation security inspectors, federal air marshals, visible intermodal prevention and response teams. So this committee greatly appreciate the dedication shown by you, admiral pekoske, and the vast majority of tsas frontline of employees who continue to work threat the covid19 pending. Each day tsa screens more than 2 million passengers, and 1. 4 million checked items for explosives and other Dangerous Items. Growth in air travel is expected to continue and will either approach or exceed prepandemic volumes in the coming months. Tsa also works closely with owners and operators to protect the variety of surface Transportation Systems that connect our cities, manufacturers and retailers. These include more than 4 million miles of roadway, nearly 140,000 miles of railroad track, over 470 titles, and more than 2. 8 million miles of pipeline, all of which are critical to our economy. Tsa conducts roughly 8000 surface inspections annually as part of a riskbased approach we are securing large and complex Transportation Systems in our nations critical infrastructure. However, since its inception tsa has been subject to significant criticism from the Government Accountability office. The dhs office of inspector general, and the regulated communities. To meet these challenges, last fall at the 20th anniversary of this agency, i introduced the Transportation Security Administration 20th anniversary review act. This act would require an individual review to evaluate the tsa successes and failures. Something that is never been done since the agencies creation. And i hope admiral pekoske will agree that this is necessary. I also the administrator will work with me on yet another bill, my tsa Security Threat assessment Application Modernization act which would streamline the enrollment process for key security credentials used in application. I appreciate your willingness to continue to keep serving the american people, and i appreciate his team that senator klobuchar mentioned. I look forward to working with the administrator to ensure that tsa implements best possible security for our Transportation Systems without unduly interfering with travel, commerce, and civil liberties. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you very much. Please, admiral. Love to hear from you. Demaree, senator klobuchar, Ranking Member wicker and establishment of the committee. Ive had the honor of serving as leader of the transportation to get administration for nearly five years and it is my great privilege to be before you today to be considered for a second fiveyear term as administrator. I would like to think President Biden formally nominate me to this important National Security position and also think secretary mayorkas and the entire d justine for the support during this process. I would also like to recognize and thank my family for the unending supporting this position and throughout my career. Laser focus on protecting our nation and our Transportation System. They are a dedicated committee workforce. Of note though i want to talk about transportation Security Officers. Tsos interact with millions every day and perform a critical National Security function for our nation. Their watch never stops. They come to work without pay. They came to work without pay during the 35 day partial Government Shutdown in 2019. A staff the checkpoint when much of the rest of the country remained home amid the onset of the covid19 pandemic, and transportation screwed officers have been an important part of the recovery of our travel from the pandemic. Our federal air marshal protect the nation during shutdowns, and in exhibit a high level incidents. They do so with a level of professionalism and integrity that serves as a model for the entire tsa family. Our workforce is an inspiration to me and totally deserving of our full support. That starts with funding the president s fiscal year 2023 budget request which provides pay equity for tsa employees. And finally put them on equal footing with the rest of their counterparts in the federal government. It confirmed i will continue to do all i can to advocate for and hopefully implement pay equity. I will continue to work hard to ensure that tsa workforce is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next five years and beyond. Tsa does not do its job alone. Our Mission Success is directly dependent on the cooperation between the agency and its myriad of partners. In aviation we continue our strong partnerships with our critical stakeholders, the airlines, airports, state and local governments and other federal agencies, foreign governments and, of course, pilots and flight attendants. Equally important are the growing partnerships we have with us or precipitation sector were tsa works closely with oil and natural gas pipeline, passenger transit rail, freigt rail, truck and bus industries. Finally amid the challenges of growing Cyber Threats tsa relies heavily on forging productive partnerships with owners and operators of our critical transportation infrastructure for which tsa serves as the security regulated. I value our partnership with organized labor, employee Resource Groups and advisory panels to provide advocacy for our workforce. They help us remain strong by promoting healthy and Thriving Work environment for our tsa family. I want to take a second and recognize these partnerships and thank all those entities for their contributions toward securing our nations Transportation Systems. If confirmed i will do everything i can to make your tsa maintains and strengthens these important partnerships to ensure our pursuit of the highest level of transportation security works in tandem with the facilitation of trade and commerce in the Transportation System. After 20 years tsa has grown considerably and weve learned a great deal about how best to protect our nations Transportation System. We still have much more work to do but i remain committed to tsas future. I look for to the opportunity to lead the people tsa for another five years, if confirmed. In closing i thank President Biden secretary mayorkas for the supported me and the entire tsa team. I think this committee for the great working relationship we have had over past five years which if we confirmed i hope to continue. Senator klobuchar Ranking Member wicker and distinguished members of the committee i look forward to your comments and questions. Thank you. Thank you very much, administrator. We have a number of senators here first of all to make sure you promise me you will tell our crew that theyre doing a great job. Absolutely promise. Thank you. Secondly, you talked about and it said the agency expects this summer to be very, very busy. You mention the numbers we are racing that. Talk about some of your biggest workforce issues, how do you think we could resolve them . Its been a busy summer, pretty much every day since memorial day has been a 2,000,000 travel day. You mention the busiest day was the friday before the fourth of july weekend, all the records, you know, before the pandemic. Its been very, very busy. Our workforce has performed incredibly during spring break and certainly as we are about in the midpoint in the summer. One of the biggest things for us i mentioned in my Opening Statement is to ensure we do achieve pay equity. When you look at all those many women that are on the front lines of tsa, they are generally making up 30 less than their federal counterparts and other agencies. If we classify their positions using Standard Guidelines their pay would increase by 30 . 30 . Thats significant and that something that is critical for tsa in the future and i would appreciate your support at ot pay equity initiative. The other thing that is very important to keep in mind is that everyone in the country pretty much has had a difficult time hiring entrylevel people. Its not easy. Its much harder than its ever been since ive been the administrator. We are about 10 below where we would like to be with our screening workforce but weve been able to maintain our wait time standards because of the incredible work of that workforce and said some mat flexibilities that we have. We asked for volunteers amongst all the transportation Security Officers and said hey, if you would like to volunteer, if youre in an airport that might be overstaffed we would like to maybe two another airport that would be understaffed. We had 1000 people raise her hand to do that. Thats why weve been able to maintain our standards to the busy summer today. I appreciated your willingness to move things. Ill never forget of years back when with huge delays because of some construction at our airport and you guys moved some dog crews from maui. You would appreciate, senator wicker, that these dogs had been in hawaii and they were moved to minnesota in february. That is what happened to them. But in any case i last two questions kind of on the same subject so i will ask them together. It is about this idea of international travel. Senator wicker actually, the bill that senator wicker led the travel and tourism omnibus act overall bill includes a bill that by senator wicker that authorizes the tsa to allow passengers arriving from foreign airports to transfer to connect flights at u. S. Airports without having to go through customs again. Theyve gone through it once, and senator blunt and i lead brand usa, done a lot of work in this area, cochair of the International Tourism caucus. Senator rosen issue a great leadership on this committee on this. How would the onestop security Pilot Program help improve and streamline the Passenger Experience . Onestop security is a terrific initiative and i really urge the passage of that initiative. It would give us the opportunity prototype onestop and several airports, internationally, and give us an amount of time to very carefully evaluate its effectiveness. First and foremost onestop security improves security. What it means is that flights that the park last when departure airports internationally bound for the u. S. Will be more secure with onestop than they are without onestop. So thats a very, very important point to make. The other is it provides a great deal of efficiency in our system. Rather than rescreen passengers, when were satisfied the security outcomes are commensurate with u. S. Outcomes, theres really no reason to rescreen passengers once they arrived in the United States. I think this will make a big difference for all travelers, in particular for business travelers who on tight schedules and wanting to move through the system quickly. Very good. And just come when you had to go on because ive gone done my time, we now in msp they can use passage from other countries can now choose to go through Border Control using facial recognition scanners. I assume there are some other updates we can do. We know these international travelers, courts what to make sure they do it is a and you yoe in charge of doing that but they spent an average of 5000 in a country every time they come and, of course, we saw that this is from the pandemic the less years, we want to it again. Just use of technology there. Yesman and were working very hard to provide Biometric Technology in our screening checkpoints around the country and was also done some prototyping with customs and Border Protection so we can biometric exit travelers on the United States just get tsa without having to go through customs. So thats a significant facilitation as a. Very good. Turn it over to senator wicker and then i would go to senator tester will be taken over for me at some point here, so thank you. When are we going to see that biometric exit . We prototyped it most recently at a lan airport. Its worked very well and partner in close with customs to put together an delimitation timeline for when speedy so just tell us how that works. What it does is when a passenger comes into the United States internationally, their image is taken at cussed when the growth of the port of entry at the airport. What customs is is a match that up with her passport photo to make sure they are the same person and, of course, we do on the background checks and things like that to admit in this country. When the exit the country theres a requirement not yet fully implemented to buy metrically exit. So you buy metrically enter an d then you will be buy metrically exited. When they land at dulles and leave an atlanta still works . Still works for is at the same thing in minnesota happening on september . In minnesota that is mostly for domestic travel. We are putting biometrics in extensively facial recognition i should mention speeders i think you should wait a long time for minnesota. [laughing] but weve been working really, really close with customs so we are not duplicated effort, using same technology and support work very wel