You, senator. Youre now recognized sen to senator from tennessee. Can you tell me how many tsa employees make a hundred thousand or more a year . I will have to get that for you. Can you make a rough guess . I can make a rough guess. I dont really know, sir. Let me ask this, do you know how many tsa employees got bonuses in the past year . There were as i said, i have restrict it had number of bonus that is we do. I will get you the exact number but it was a significant smaller number and based upon performance, not based upon special act awards. Can you tell me, have you personally fired any employee tsa employees for misconduct or rudeness or incompetence since youve been in the office . There have been a number of people who have been fired from the agency at all levels. I came in and one of my first tasks was to determined what my agency looked like. I hold my leaders and demanded and i am confident of my team and im confident of team to help lead that team. Today i have been satisfied with their performance although we have a long way to go. You heard mr. Mica say that youre spending almost as much on administration as actual screening, whats your response to that . Do you think thats accurate . Well, i agree that any leader needs to look hard on the way resources are being spent. I have done so, i have done systemic review of our entire agency and the Management Practices of the agency. In fact, i moved resources around and have been working with the appropriators and Oversight Committee to ensure they understand where those savings can be found. I think theres more savings to be found in my bucket. Some of the oversight is required to contracts that tsa has but theres always room for examination of that and i intend to do so. Were you surprised when Inspector General mentioned 18,000 complaints and criminal convictions . I think that was across the dhs enterprise, not all tsa. We are very large agency of about 60,000 people. It doesnt surprise that we occasionally have people that dont act well. Im concerned about the effect mostly concerned about how you deal with it when you discover it and i commit that had i will work very closely with him on understanding what the nature of those allegations and misconduct are. Ive served on the aviation subcommittee ever since ive been in congress and chaired it for six years and i can tell you that you have more well over twice as many screeners now as when it was privatized and yet there are more complaints and longer lines now that when it was privatized, do you have any explanation of that . Well, i think theres a couple of factors there. One, there are significantly more pupil well, not that many more percentagewise. Yes, sir. Theres been increase, not a two and a half times increase over when it was privatized. I can assure you of that. We will get to the exact number. You will be surprised at much more volume to be seen and theres a lot more to worry. Theres a lot more threats to the system. So the nature of passenger screening is much more complex than it was 15 years ago prior to 9 11. Have you reviewed the testimony of the witnesses that we had in here a few days ago and in particular the testimony about the one administrator that you spent 12 million on a restaffing of a floor that should have cost 3 million at the most . I have reviewed the testimony and as i mentioned, i put significant controls over expenditures, over cost associated with those expenditures at all levels of the organization. Now, i also heard that there were just about as many contractors as numbers of employees and yet i have read and heard that many Small Businesses feel theyre having trouble getting meetings set up or getting phone calls returned. Do you have or would you be willing to set up a Small BusinessOutreach Office to help so many departments and agencies when they become so big, just the big giants are well connected enough to get meetings and get phone calls returned. And im wondering if youre doing something about that. Yes, sir, thank you for that question. I have good news to report on that front. Thats one of my concerns too. I spent a fair amount of time on the acquisition side of the house and had great concern of participation and we met our Small Business participation targets last year for the first time ever. And we continue to do so. I dont think theres enough competition in the current marketplace and i think theres a great deal of entrepreneurial in the world. All right, thank you very much. Will now recognize the Congress Women from illinois. Thank you, mr. Chair. Administrator neffenger, you talked about the idea that more people and tsa needs more workers. How many passengers are currently enrolled in precheck . We are currently about 2. 4 million. How and what what number do you think that can go to . Well, weve done a lot of work with the u. S. Travel association and other associations connected with the Airline Industry and we think we can get the number to 25 million by calendar year 19. What are you doing to ensure passengers to join the program . We have done a lot more to advertise the program. Consistently reduce it had awareness, but two factors, one you have to advertise and you have to have places where people can sign up for it and those were the two areas that we needed to do a lot of work on. We have been working very closely with u. S. Travel association, individual airlines the, the Airline Associations and the airport associations to increase their advertising, im please today report that all of the Major Airlines are doing their own conversations of advertising, some have offered the opportunity to exchange miles for precheck, we have gone through a number of u. S. Chamber of commerce and to a number of the large corporations, microsoft corporation, for example, now vice precheck for all of its travelers. So those kinds of things are helping being more than double what we saw this time last year. We think it needs to get a little higher. Between that and the other programs such as global and nexu, we believe in the associations agree with us that we can get this up to 25 million which dramatically changes we can change the system by calendar 19. People are carrying more and more like a john and stuffing more and more in the luggage. The big airlines made 22 billion in profit from charges. And i wanted to know, that is one of the sources. What portion of that goes toward paying any Airport Security . Do they contribute in any way . Currently the airlines do not make a direct contribution. It is on the roundtrip. We are seeing more baggage come to the check point. I will say, the airlines now are being very diligent about enforcing the one plus one rule which has helped considerably. We are experimenting with what we call travel light which gives those individuals who are simple carryon like briefcase her purse the opportunity to have a debit to have a dedicated wing allowing us to me people through. Calling on the airline to help address the consequences of their Business Decisions because the more they charge the less people are going to check their bags. I think americans 35. That is one piece of luggage. Well, it is the decision of the airline to make those fees. I could talk about the impact of people carrying baggage through the checkpoint. I will say that the airlines are aware of this. I understand why they made that business decision. I told them what the impact could be, and they committed to work with us to find ways to reduce stress at the checkpoint. And is something that they should look at. The ontime record and on and on. Thank you. Directed reassignment has been used to force out disfavored employees. Do you believe this is not going crisis . Discontinued that practice and put staunch controls on it. Move people periodically the places where skills are needed, you need strong controls in the must be done in an open and transparent way that is not used to retribution. Im glad you went that way. I would like to testify before this committee, issued a directed reassignment with no apparent justification to move caused him significant financial hardship. In your opinion was this an appropriate use and if so what is your justification . It is not, and that is why change the policy. Reassigned to a smaller and less complex airport. Accepting the assignment would cause them hardship. Again, that happened before my arrival. Am responsible now. Im not conducting assignments in that manner. Now, there was a directed reassignment in february 15 2 to concerns over retaliation and ultimately rescinded. I referred to the person who made that decision. Part of the justification was to sever past loyalties. Do you consider this an appropriate justification . That is being investigated by the office of special counsel. If they find it to be true then of course it was an appropriate. Was he directly reassigned . I believe it was brought before the Council Hundreds then mandate and recommended leadership beyond that. Was anybody . Again, i am waiting for the results. Depending upon what they find it made point to appropriate discipline. And the many cases with Law Enforcement people are put on administrative leave. You stand by these assignments . Again, i will await the office of special counsel review. I dont think the manner in which we are doing directed reassignments prior to my arrival was justifiable. Significant controls on the process now. Periodic, daily basis, how is it done . We have not done a directive reassignments. It goes through a series of objects and reviews. Cost of the office of the administrator for the decision. I will yield back. A recognize the ranking member. I want to get down to the meat of what happened the other day. When the whistleblowers came in. There was a theme running throughout there testimony, and they were forthright good people. They came to us for fairness. But one of the things that they said was that there are some leadership folk, and they said there are not a lot of them to try to undermine the things that you are trying to bring about. And i felt very strongly that if these folks were not there things would run a lot smoother, and so i want to ask you, this workforce is running out because they think the elections are coming. Other whistleblowers expressed similar concerns. Administrator, have you heard this concern . The problem is just waiting you out. How do you put in systems that go beyond your tenure . Deepwater horizon. Make sure we had procurement officers that were trained to set up a mechanism by which theyre was an inner inside the coast guard printing apparatus that is doing fine. How do you do that and keep in mind what they say . They were not so much complaining about you but folks under you. Do you have any idea who these whistleblowers were talking about our . I dont know who they were directly referring to, but let me tell you how i approach leadership of this organization. The 1st thing you have to do is set clear standards and expectations. It is directly related to getting the Security Mission done. The people who report directly to me and are responsible collectively for the performance. If you fail to perform i will hold you accountable. I do so by requiring them to report back with specific measures of performance. I know how hard i am working and how long they are there. If i merited oclock and manning call somebody they are there at 8 00 oclock at night. A Leadership Team that is driven and pointed in the right direction. That stays there in the event i am not here after the election . First of all, inspire the workforce to the mission the 1st took the oath of office four. This is a workforce that committeda workforce that committed themselves to one of the most Challenging Missions in the country. And then you have to build the institutional controls and put them in the policy and get that stamped by the department of Homeland Security and turn to people like the Inspector General and the secretary of Homeland Security and asked them to review the policy and put controls of the Department Level. Can you bring in leaders that are career employees, which i have done. You bring in i brought in chief of operations, a man of superb integrity and who is responsible for couraging going forward. I will provide for you a list of those kind of actions we are taking, but the way you ensure it survives is not to let it be the decision of one individual anymore. One of the things, every member of this committee and i know for a fact of the chairman feels this way, if there is retaliation we have a major problem and will do everything in our power to protect whistleblowers. This reassignment, and i know your not doing it anymore, basically what they were doing is sounded like intentionally tearing up families, dividing them command really putting hardship on people. They were spending hundred thousand dollars in one case to do a reassignment that did not make sense except to retaliate. I want to know your position , how you deal with it. We want to be assured that if there are people who are doing that and i am telling you, you will get every member of our Committee Backing you up, but we want to know your position with regard to that and have you found any of that so far . You may have heard some things. I do not tolerate that. It is illegal, unethical commanded all the categories of the kind of people you dont want to the organization. The people who are doing most of those reassignments are no longer at the agency. I am interested andin is the result of the office of special counsel investigation into existing cases. Depending ondepending on those findings i will take immediate action. It will not be tolerated. I do not know how extensive it was because we know that people have come forward, but i have made it clear. I directly support the rights of individuals to come forward. That is valuable information you get. And i will finish with this you are saying if there are people watching this at tsa who feel that they are being wrongfully retaliated against for some action is being taken against them that is illegal and improper , you are saying you have an open door. They can come directly to me, exactly. Thank you very much. Now recognize the gentleman from south carolina. Thank you. I will be brief. I think we are probably all prisoners to a certain extent. While i am open and interested of the experiences and expectations of others, i have never had a problem. The folks are professional. My friend from florida and other people who consider themselves to be dignitaries other neither expect or accept preferential treatment. And a member of congress is a little bit of personal obligation to say no. So i am quite certain that your department can do better. Im quite certain you have a plan to do better. Im quite certain that congress can do better. We will focus on fixing us, and i trust you have a plan to fix tsa. I yield to the gentleman from florida. Actually, i want to complement mr. Cummings. Sometimes he and i disagree, but his line of questions, i am not here just to buster jobs, but his line of questioning was from the other side of the aisle. What we heard raised Great Questions and was documented by staff. The amounts of money that were used to pay to transfer people in retribution, and then the other thing is, i was telling the chairman, i think you are good guy. You are good guide to be sent in to clean up the mess, but sometimes a leader is best as mushrooms, kept in the dark. What we heard is going on, you are being fed this information by these people who are protecting their rear ends. Im trying to put this in terms that can be presented on cspan. Again, this is our concern. I am not going to forget. We had a call of 20 or 30 minutes from curb to gate. That is when it was under the transportation committee, and we went out and did a thing. And it can be done. They do not have to hassle 95 percent of the people. Were supposed to be looking for the ones who are getting through. The attrition rate averages 10 percent. Average. 4500. Fortyfive hundred is your. Again, we are not going to get it. It is very hard to administer. They cant staff to traffic. One of your defenders, sometimes the pre check line was longer than the others. It is not a thinking organization. I dont know how you get an advocate under federal supervision. The total number of bonuses paid in 2015 and 14. I want to know the maximum and minimum amount for the screeners. These guys were card. Their macs is in the range of 300, and this guy is getting 80,000. If we paid them better, maybe we could retain them. It is not done on the cheap. I have some flexibility, not much. I yield back. Yield for one 2nd. Thank you. Now recognize the german from massachusetts. Thank you. Good to see you again. Only criticize you today about long lines, we will all you appear. We have that flexibility. And you do not. I have been a critic at times. The work you are doing in the work that you continue to do all we are going in the right direction. Regarding let me ask upfront, we seem to rely a lot on the whistleblower. In the aviation and transportation security act, it says that employees may be hired and fired basically on the will of the management of tsa. As i understand it, the do not have ejection under title vii. They do have protection the way in which we govern the agency. Ill have to look at the case. Not governed by the statute. But it was adopted. I will take your word for that. That is not really the protection that they need. We had a case a while ago. The nofly list, terrorist watch list, and you came in and change the system. For those employees removed . And i realize the reason it was given was tsa was not. To those lists. Allowed to be employed in airports and secure areas. When you went in ukraine that up, and i just want to know how. They were in the terrorist information data mode environment. This is information that may not indicated direct association. The answer back was that none met sufficient information to directly call the terrorist. Many of them no longer hold their credentials. It was very valuable. Allowed us to amend access which ultimately could feed into the terrorist watch list and now we do a full automated review. If anyone pops up in any category allows you to take a harder look at them which we do and then go back. We have to admit, this is a higher level of flexibility. That was exactly the question. Work