Transcripts For CSPAN2 TSA Administrator Nominee Testifies A

CSPAN2 TSA Administrator Nominee Testifies At Confirmation Hearing July 26, 2022

2017. Youre watching live coverage, on cspan 3. [inaudible] the committee will come to order. Today, we are considering the nomination of David Pekoske to be the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration at the department of Homeland Security. Administrator pekoske, welcome back to the committee. And congratulations on another nomination for this position. And thank you for your willingness to continue to serve in a challenging and Important Role in the federal government. Over 20 years ago, the Transportation Security Administration was established in response to the september 11th terrorist attacks, to carry out the essential mission of ensuring that travelers are both safe and secure. Since its creation, travelers have encountered tsa on a daily basis. Most notably, during the security screening process at our nations airports. In fact, tsa currently screens over 2 million travelers each and every day. This is a significant undertaking, and it wouldnt be possible without our dedicated frontline tsa staff. Who work hard each and every day to ensure our Transportation Safety but especially throughout the national pandemic, where they continue to serve with great honor. Administrator pekoske, im grateful for your vocal support of the tsa workforce and i would florida working with you to ensure that our tsa officers receive that compensation and benefits that they certainly deserve. As we discussed during last weeks hearing, the threat to our Homeland Security posed by Unmanned Aircraft systems is rapidly growing. I know tsa has requested explicit authorities to conduct counterUnmanned Aircraft system activities to maintain our transportation security. And i certainly support these efforts. Im working on Bipartisan Legislation and to reauthorize and strengthen counter Unmanned Aircraft system authorities to better tackle this threat. Which i plan to introduce in the coming weeks. As we work to protect travelers from threats in the sky, we must also focus on the travel experience on the ground. As chairman of this committee, i have long pressed the department of and its component agencies to address concerns raised by communities, including michigans muslim and arab communities, about challenges they face during the travel screening process. Security of our Transportation System is absolutely critical, but we must also ensure that tsa is upholding civil rights and Civil Liberties and the privacy of our travelers. I am pleased that customs and Border Protection has recently announced a new Senior Community relations manager, to address the its very unique concerns. But i would like to see tsa take a more proactive step to be responsive to the affected communities and address these concerns as well. Administrator a cow ski, if nominated for a second term you will play a Critical Role in ensuring our screening procedures and standards, specifically the dhs traveler inquiry program, are fair and equitable, easy to navigate and as transparent as absolutely possible. I look forward to working with you to ensure tsa can proactively protect travelers and our transportation facilities. And to hearing more from you about your vision for continuing the tsa is critical mission. Ranking member portman will be joining us shortly. We have a lot going on all around capitol hill right now, he will be here shortly and well have an opportunity for Opening Statements at that time. But now, it is the practice of the committee to swear in witnesses. So, if you will please stand, sir, and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony that you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god . I do. Thank you. You may be seated. Today, our witness is David Pekoske, who is nominated to serve a second term as administrator of the Transportation Security Administration at the department of Homeland Security. Administrator pekoske oversees 60,000 employees and is responsible for Security Operations at nearly 440 airports throughout the United States. And the security of highways, railroads, mass transit systems and pipelines. While at dhs, administrator pekoske also served as the acting secretary and as the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary. Previously, administrator pekoske served as the 26th vice commandant of the United States coast guard. And as the executive in the Government Services industry, where he led teams that provide counterterrorism, security and Intelligence Support Services to government agencies. Administrator, welcome back to this committee. Thank you, once again, for your service and your willingness to serve once again. You may proceed with your opening remarks. Thank you, mister chairman. Good morning chairman peters, Ranking Member portman and distinguished members of the committee. Ive had the honor of serving as a leader of the Transit Security administrator for nearly five years now. And it is my great privilege to be before you today, to be considered for a second five year term as administrator. I think President Biden for renominating me for this Important National security position, and also thank secretary mayorkas and the entire dhs team for their support during this process. I deeply appreciate the support my family provides me in this position in throughout my career. When President Biden announced my renomination, one equate and said to me, thats a tough job, why would you want to do it again for another five years . The answer to this is simple. I want to continue to support the amazing tsa workforce. The tsa workforce is exceptional and, during my time at tsa, they have performed at a highlevel image challenging in historic circumstances. Whether it is transportation Security Officers, air marshals, inspectors or all of the tsa employees who support them behind the scenes, im immensely proud to be part of an organization laser focused on protecting our nation and its Transportation Systems. They are a dedicated, committed workforce. There watch never stops. They came to work without pay in a shutdown in 2019. When much of the country remain home amid the covid 19 pandemic. Transportation Security Officers have been part of the recovery of air travel we are seeing this summer. Federal air marshals protect the nation during highlevel incidents with a level of professionalism and integrity that serves as a model for the tsa family. The workforce is an inspiration to me deserving of our supports of starting with the 2023 budget request which provides pay equity for tsa employees and puts them on equal pay footing with their counterparts in the federal governors. If confirmed i will do what i can to advocate and implement and work hard to ensure the workforce is well prepared to meet the challenges of the next 5 years and beyond, tsa does not do its job alone. Our success depends on cooperation between the agency and its partners. We continue partnerships with critical stakeholders, airlines, airports, state and local governments, other agencies, foreign governments, pilots, and flight attendants. Equally important are growing partnerships with the surface transportation sector where tsa works with the oil and natural gas pipeline, passenger and transit rail, freight rail, trucking and bus in just amid the challenges of growing Cyber Threats tsa relies forging on operators of the critical transportation infrastructure for which tsa serves as security regulator. I value organized labor and Resource Groups and advisory panels to provide advocacy to help us remain strong by promoting healthy working environments for our tsa family. I want to recognize these partnerships and thank those entities for the contributions toward the Transportation Systems. Of confirmed i will do what i can to make sure tsa maintains and strengthens these partnerships to ensure our pursuit of the highest level of transportation security works in tandem with facilitation of trade and commerce in the Transportation System. I think this can be for cortical work to provide authority to the department and tsa to counter unmanned aerial systems. I appreciate work on Critical Infrastructure security to include efforts addressing the cybersecurity of the transportation sector. I hope to continue this important cooperation. After 20 years tsa has grown and weve learned how to be the best at protecting our nations Transportation Systems. We have much work to do but i remain committed to tsas future. Distant wished members of the committee i look forward to answering your questions. Ranking member portman recognized for the opening comments. Thank you for your willingness to serve again and thank you for having this hearing. This is a critical position, you know well, it is also one this committee cares about given oversight responsibility is, tsa played a vital role since 9 11 in combating terrorism and ensuring aviation and Transportation Systems are protected. As i walked through the tsa line which i do twice a week i say thank you for protecting us because that is what you do and we appreciate that and we have fought to help ensure tsa personnel are treated appropriately on the federal Government Law enforcement context and we want to do more in that regard. So we appreciate your work and the diligence of the tsa workforce and if you look at the record although others have helped to make your system work better by pointing out flaws, we have been blessed with not having the kinds of incidents everyone feared we would have after 9 11. I will say 9 11 type threats, having been the greatest challenge and the reason tsa was bulked up, those threats have evolved over time specifically i want to talk about how tsa needs to realign to meet those evolving threats, your job is not just to protect airports and air travelers but also surface Transportation Systems. Colonial pipeline is an issue of concern of this committee, we had hearings on it and drafted legislation and enacted legislation to deal with that kind of threat. Exposed vulnerabilities in tsa oversight of the surface Transportation System specifically the pipelines but more broadly, that random attack was the largest attack on Oil Infrastructure in the history of the country. It also prompted you to issue the first ever cybersecurity related security directives for owners and operators of pipelines, required mandatory instant reporting and adoption of mitigation measures. When issuing these directives tsa used emergency authorities to bypass regular soy notice and comment periods. I remain concerned at the use of this Emergency Authority from previously collaborative approach on cybersecurity standards and this committee is here to have concerns about this. Another area of concern is refusal to provide information to this committee about those draft directives to congress. This includes the chairs and Ranking Members of this committee and other congressional oversight committees despite having shared copies of the drafts of these directives to the pipeline industry. You provided them to the pipeline industry but not the oversight committee. The explanation weve gotten is that you wont provide the drafts because they are predecisional and therefore delivered, that confuses me since you already assured them with external Company Officials so today will be an opportunity for you to explain how these documents can be internally deliberative and yet externally shared with the private sector. Thats a contradiction. I think sometimes when things come up to congress they tend to become too public. All i can say is chairman peters and i have a history of treating these sensitive documents in the appropriate way and we need to know what your draft directives are saying to the private sector, and ensure our oversight responsibilities which are incredibly important with what is happening with pipelines and other potential threats are able to get fulfilled. So again, thank you for your years of service, tsa will be an important piece of the security. Work as we get back with more travel. It was packed and i was told we were a d5 where we were paris covid, we are back where we were in summer of 2019. Thats good to hear. Business travel is still off but even with inflation and all the concerns where the economy is headed, your travelers are back, we need to make sure tsa provides this Important Service to protect them and appreciate what they do every day. I look forward to talking about this draft directive. There are three questions this, he asks of everyone who comes before us. I will ask you if you could respond yes or no to each of these questions. Is there anything you are aware of in your background that might present conflict in first with the duties of office for which youve been nominated. Do you know of anything, personal or otherwise that would in any way prevent you from fully and honorably discharging the responsible use of the office that you have been nominated . No, sir. Do you agree without reservation to comply with any requests or summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress . I do. You and i have spoken about concerns raised from the muslim and arab American Communities about many tsa implanted lists, policies, programs but can lead to additional screenings at the airport. We can both agree security for the Airline Travel of the utmost importance, something i am focused on one hundred as i know you are but there are multiple cases of individuals remaining on these lists for over a decade even though theres no evidence whatsoever that they pose any sort of threat. Please tell me what steps you are taking to address concerns with these policies impacting communities, certain communities and have done so for at least 20 years. Thank you for raising the issue and for conversation last week, this is something i want to address completely and fully. For an agency that has Security Response ability for an agency that impacts millions of people to have the trust of the traveling population to know the procedures we have and processes we use are fair, equitable, consider the privacy concerns of every traveler. I commit to you i will do what i can which is substantial, you mentioned in your Opening Statement designation of a direct report to provide input and i endorse that idea. We have an office of traveler engagement that is a direct report to the administrator and i want to ensure those lines, rather than waiting for somebody to come to us, regular scheduled engagement, to visit the communities in the state of michigan and minnesota, to introduce myself to those communities and begin to establish a relationship with them of malevolent relationships that existed other levels in the agency. I want people to feel that if they have a question about how tsa processes their security that we listen carefully, get the facts that are there and make sure when we go back though we arent unfairly causing additional process to any traveler. The other thing im already looking at is in communications with travelers through the redress program i think we can improve what we communicate to passengers to explain what the letter says and what it doesnt mean so you have my full commitment to address this. Connection or magnus was in michigan, he came back, had a very good experience and i look forward to partnering with him and the secretary presenter ghs team that can address this problem. Good to hear that, appreciate your commitment and we look forward to hosting you in michigan in the near term. As our nation continues to recover from the covid 19 pandemic tsas frontline staff continue to work tirelessly to ensure our system remain safe and secure but significant parts of the tsa workforce are underpaid relative to other similarly situated federal employees and other agencies which has impeded tsas ability to retain qualified workers that are so essential for so my question is i appreciate your support on the proposal to address this longstanding inequity that would provide our frontline staff with increase in base pay but i would like you to address the impact of the compensation and benefit disparities on the front line tsa workforce and why do we need this action to rectify the situation. This is my number one priority as administrator, and if confirmed going forward, to fix this pay issue. Our frontline transportation Security Officers the travelers see every time they travel through a security checkpoint on average they get paid 30 less than their counterparts in the rest of the federal government, thats fundamentally unfair. It inhibits our. To recruit and retain talent so i think this is the most important

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