tv C-SPAN Weekend CSPAN June 13, 2010 6:00am-7:00am EDT
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pride the best tools possible to those who would engage with the traling public. so, for example, individuals who those who have no terrorist affiliation such as abdu mutallab on chrisas day, how do we seen for that other than through enhanced techniqueso the watch list performs a valuable function in trying to identifier as a tier, here's somebody who you should take an additional look, it's not dispositive of anythg but if somebody is on a watch list particularly the no-flier sectee,t is and should b applied so that person doesn't pose a threat to aviation secuty in that instance or other opportunities that person may ha to do something bad in the u.s. >> thankyou, mr. pistole. senator hutchison? >> well, t you, mr. chrman. first, i will just ask you the question as theking member
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if you and your agency will be available to all the members of our committee as well as our staffs on our behalf for information that we need to be the oversigh committee of the united states senate. >> absolutely, senator hutchison. lo forwardo that if confirme >> thank you. t's talk abo collective rgaining. we have asked nominees before the question abouthat you think about it, how you would respond to it,ut i'm going to ask you a different question beuse i though that the secretary will make a final decision on this. but my question toou is, what is goi t bour aice to the secretary? and what factors are you going tose to give her advic on whether ts would hurt the capability to respond tovoid any kindf work stoppages or
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slowdowns or any of the ways that people use t show that they aren't pleased if colltive bargaining doesn't go their way? >> sure, thank you, senator. secretary napolitano did ask me to conduct revie o this ise, which i'll d engaging all stake holers in t procs. in terms of any bigssues or cisions like that in my leadership experience at the fbi, i tried to do jus that so it's consistent with that perspective of trying to gather as much information as possible and then making an infmed jument or recommendation and so i need more information to do th. my experience with the fbi is such that, of course, we don't have union orollective baaining so i'm attuned to t security/safety issue and from my perspective whatever the discussions are cat adversely affe and safety and security
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of the tveling public. >> every previous administrator has determined thatollecte bargning is not appropriate for this particular agen. will you consult with former heads of the tsa in your deliberations about what you will recommend? >> i would conside th, senator, as people who are wiinart of the stakeholders in this whole process given their experience and everything viously uld be open to all those who have valuable insights in that regard. >> let me just ask you if the secretary s indated to you that she will take yr advice or what has been -- when she asks you to look into it, did she say that she would rely on you or indicate that she might go a different way? >> no, she gavno indication. she simply asked me to do t reew andm my perspective,
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th is, an iependent assessment that i would do wi, again, engaging the stakolders but that will be my assessment and we've had no discsions about theoutcome of that. >> well, we certain are going to, as i said earlier, want to fully informed of your decision. >> absolutely. >> and be able to discuss it. let me ask y about your thoughts ohe other issues sides airline security. i think that many of the focuses in this agencyave cerly been airline and as they should be, tt is, a place where people are vulnerable and w know that many tris havbeen tried and largely we ve avoide having another 9/11,ut what other areas do you see as
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priorities and where youould need to put resources for safety? >> thayou, senator. as i mentioned, given the inrest in and successful attacks th wve seen in europe and india in particular against rail networks,he attempted attack by naji bull la zazi, means that the multiple millions more traveling by rai every day in subways than the 2 million air passengers tha we have in the u.s. makes that one of the key priorities. port are also a critical are that needs to be worked a part of the interagency, obviously coast guard has a large responsibility there but helping inform and then work with the other agencies to address vulnerabilities at al qaeda and other terrorist groupsave dicated an interest in tryin
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to do bad things to. so those two parts obviously hazmat carriers, those, the over-the-road truckers and freights, heavy rail, light subway, l areas that fall within that umbrella of transportation security and so confirmed i look forward to working with you a the committee to assess those vulnerabilities and to figure out the best way to manage ris by allocating resource. >> thank u, mr.chairman. >> thank you, senat hutchison. senar demint. >> thank you, mr. chaian. mr. piole, the reason that some of us are makinguch a issuef collective bargaining it's kind of a signa to us. there is no doubt i my mind you have the qualifications to mak the transportatn security agency a better agency, continuing to improve it. you know how t manage people and focus on security. t if we s youieldg to political pressure, that would suggest to us that the
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priories have changed and that's why it's so important to us. i mean i've got a letter from candidate barack oba to john gauge ofhe national or the ameran federation of governme employees promising to provide collective bargaining benefits a so that's going to be a very difficult political presre for you to stand down but i think you probably have worked in difficult environments re. but when we m a few weeks ago you said you n thought of ving collective bargainingt the fbi and y are one of t nation's leading coteerrorism officers i find it instructive that you didn' even think the workforce at the fbi needed to unionize. would it be accurate to say that in implementing collective bargaining the f would not improve national security? >> i'm sorry, senator. if you couldephrase or reste that, apologize. in terms ofhe f -- >> would collective bargaing
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improve surity - would it improve national surity at the fbi? >> thank you. no, senator. obviouslfromhe fbi's perspective we have toave the abilityo s resources at any time to be able to deploy peopleot only nationwide but worldwide at a moment's notic and so the perspective is e, agrom my experience is one ofot collective bargain. that's w i need to go into . >> let mesk this. obviously the people that work at the agency, the officers are ry importanto us and the way ey're treated is very importanto us and if you assume the reins at the tsa can you commit to paying the officers an hones wage having the highest rkplace standards ensuri the professional development of your officers and do you promise not t show favoritism or discriminate in the process that evaluate perfmance and dermine promion, overtime shift bids or health andsaty? would that be your commitment?
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well, senator, of course, what i am very focused on is the workforce velopment issues. you's gone into a lot of detail there. what pledge to do is make sure thhe -- all the tossndll emoyees of t have a voice that they know can b heard by thhead of 9 agency a can engage and dcuss tho issues, some of which you've outlined i a mningful fashion. >> so you don'think you necessarily need a third party to tell you to do that? >> that's something i have to withhold judgment on because i dot have the information and need to conduct thateview and lk to the stakeholders and make an informed decision >> you don't hav it -- >> i kno what my commitment to the employees will be, thank you, senator. >> when you make that assessment will you maket ailable to the committee? >> i will need to talk to the secretary initial and in discussions with they are make that decision. not you'll give us your ether or assessment? >> i'm not sure. about that.lk to the secretary >> okay.
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all right. well, e unions ar making the case that if w don't have llective bargaining that someone in your position will not provide the proper workplace enviroent in fairness. i think your history shows that that's not ue. at's certainly something , again, i know we've made enough of this issue,ut i wil trust your jument. >> thanks, senator. >> until proven otherwe. thank you very much. >> thank you, nar. preciate it. >> yield back. >> thankyo sator demint. setor begich >> thankyou, mr. chairman. thank you very much. it's great toee you a couple of days ago. i do have -- i want to restate some of the questions we tked about but i have to take -- i wasn't planng to ask any questions on this or even make a statement on it, but on the whole collective bargaing issue. you know, i'm hopeful what i've learned in year and a half little issuesike this suddenly become big issues because of philosophical differences versus
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wh is right and what nds to be ne. let me ask youirst oneasic question. i'm going to give you a comnt here. first the question is, in your position, you wi -- will you do everything pose to make re that whater rules, gutions, procedures, everything youo will ensure the safety of the traveler as well as the highest quality of workers in tsa? >> yes. >> that's the it malt eson. how you get there is,ou know, thiss the part o the role that i look to administration to work on. as a former mayor, somneho had to minister well over 80 police and fire who are unionized, i saw not one diminishment of public safet because peoe who go int this fieldnd correct me if i'm wrong, you've been in the fbi for manyears they chose this field becau i union or not union, theyhoose this field becausthis is the area of interest to them because they instinctively you want to make this place a saferplace. is that a fair atement. >> ye it's a missn. >> you don't sit there and say,
quote
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geez, is this union or nonunion so i have to take exception to both minority members a that is i will stack the police department that i had against any publi safy team i this countr th were unionized but they never fort their number one mission. >> right. >> which is t public safety o in that case our community there. same thing you would see at tsa. is that a fair statement under any circumstances the goal sur's ing to make sure those folks understandheir numbe one missio that's thegoal. >> is tveling -- so i want t take som exception. i undetand there's philosoplssues butgain people don't go into these jobs and say, ge if the union doesn't do this, i'm not going to keep the public safe. do you have that feeling that they would do that? >> well, i really don't have that nse, senator. obviously coming from my, you know, 27 years athe fbi, nonunion collective bargaining. >>ou've worked as an fbi -- >> all the time. task forces acrosshe country. >> you probably cannot tell me which ones are union or not
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union? >> someare. some aren't. >> you could probably tell me would are the best officers. >> sure. >> it's irrelevant if they belonged to a bargaining union or not because that nevernters thediscussion. >> that's fair. >> i apologize. i had no interest in talng about is issue. again, as a mayor who managed public safety officers, i can tell you, again, tir nber one goal is to keep t public fe >> right. >> period. so j take little exception to the debate that just went on. lete get to ver specific alaskanssues i i can and as we talked about and one of them wa the whole issue of the twic cards and how the transportation issue, we talked a little about that. i want to make sure whave this comfort on thecord. that is the complication for people in ruralska to get those -- tha next stephere they have to get tard personally delivered to them which in some cases could be very expensive to fly to go to the xt lation to get that
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and/or time commitment talked about some iasf trying to utilize thnog in this way of unrstanding the need to make sure the safet is cleared, the right person gets the card. >> right. >> i want to reiterate the point but also make sure you and i are on the same page, you would b willing to look innovative ways to ensure they gethese cardat the security is there but this eenve back and forth tralingay be an opportunity to avoidhat with some new technology. is that a fair- >> senator, if confirmed i look forward to working with you on that to make sure the latest technolo issed while ensuring safety and security of those cards of workers are paramount. >> also, we talked about the whole issue of when ancra airport nt into a full right after 9/11 kin of almost volunteereto upgrade their facilities in advance of all t regulation and everything put into place but theyid it because they were modeling,
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novating the airport as well asthers around the country and there's a few of these airports similar situation where they expended money but ty -- tsa now has not reimbursed them after multiple years. this is an area youould look into to find a resolutn. >> yes, i would look io th. >> the last one isust the general mment a y and i haa conversatioon this. thats st the whole issue of the uniqueness of aviation in alaska. would it be fai in o conversation that we had that there is some differences but you have to see them as they lay out but in rural alaska, rural states having a full-blown tsa, for example, i'llust u an example i used with you was in a village like chevak, very small that maybe there needs toe not one size fits all but derstanding of rural internal state travel and how tsa can be more custome friendly in that regard. is tt a fair -- >>hat's fa, setor. if confirmed i look forward
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again in working with and the committee on those issues, on those airports. he resources >> last comment -- i know you've been t palmer for awhile. you went there for a short bit. look forward to try to bring you t alaska and we' go visit on of those villages. >> thanks, senator. i appreciate it. >> thank y very much >> mr. pistole, i warn you that the senho just spoke is obsessed and properly soh alaska and you will see him and hear from him often. senator warner. >> thank you, mr. chrman. i'm not sure my good friend and colleague isimply obsessed with alaska. he's oessedith a lot of ings mr. stole, it's goo to see you again. >> likewise. >> quick comments. one, i think you've got the absolute right background for this position. >> thank you, sir. >> enjed visiting with y yesterday and obviously you've had a history ofublic service and toe willing to step into
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this breach considering the challenges of this job and the past challenges some of the nominees again, i'm grateful for your willingness to step forward. senator begich raised one of the issues i was going to. had a airport thadid the right thin relied upon tsa assertions if you upgrade next genetion security facilities during the middle of remoling effort that makes goodusins sense and then when they came to get reimbursed those dollars hav't been there so i look forward to hearing the same kind of response, as well. d this is probably one of imagine i got colleags on the her side of the ais that have this same issue. let me also reassert what i think t chairman has mentioned and i think all of our colleagues believe. your number one job to me sure that your tsa employees ensure the safety of the holand, thsafety of our traveling public, both domtic and foreign, and clearly my
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conversations with you in reviewing your background, you've got tt expertise. >> thank you, setor. >> but do believe there's another piece and raised it yesterda i want to take another moment it, and that is you've got cse to --ou'll have close to 50,000 employees and in many ways this is the -- these employees are the first impression. >> right. >> that visitors coming t our country teract with. it's also a requid intersection witall of the domestic traveli public. and i don't think ain'm going to be alone on this issue, but i constantl hear complaints out mistreatment of the traveling public by tsa officers. i recently received a letter from a constituent who described an incident of waiting literally 40 minut in a screening line at dulles and h described the tsa officers as surly and inappropriate. he said they had no consideration of folks waiting
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in line and again as we discussed surly and inappropriate. hink most amecans know the privilege of flying and the requirement of additional screening in a post 9/11 world. but that requirement can be done in a manner that is -- dsn't have to be surl i think one of the challenges you're going to ha in ts requirement is making re that customer service not to be trumped by security, security always has to trump, but stomer service has to ba component of your tsa officers. and what i think added insult to injury and again probably most of my colleagues have flo out of dulles recently, we've spent tens of millions of dollars on a new securi mezzanine, and it's mo that be a bit frustrating for the traveling public to get cart and shuttledown to this new surity mezzanine with lots
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and lots of gates andsee, then, those gates woefully understaed and thi is repeated comments. sometimes stfedy folks who e surly, a the surly and inapopriate behavior were the comments of my constituent. and these folks havgot a job to do. but they can do iin a way tt ihink both doesn't mitigate their securityconcerns. actually would enhance the security concerns if they feel cooperation from the traveling blic as well as the role of this first impression that comes about with our- with many of our foreign travelers. so what steps would you take to ensure appropriate staffing, to ensure that as you build up the at the a,ou'veot new agency with a lot ofburdens,
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civil service ought to actn a civimatter. looking toyou, makingure we're making that progress, both in terms of staffing, moral and in the ctomer service area? >> tha you, senator, and i would just start off byaying i agree wit all of your statements in terms of custome service has to b part and parcel of the securitission and that often times can you accomplish more through better customer service tha the type con that you descri which, if confirmed, my expectation andlear direction would be to focus on tho issues, i think everybody recognes in this roo and any of the traveling public that the tsos have a challenging job. some would say it's very challenge bein with limited reward, only recogzeif something bad happens, wch is not a good metric. so what i want to do if
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confmed is work with the human resources people of the tsa a of the department to assess what the current metrics are. irankly don't know right now, obviously throughput is a key issue, how maneople can get through the screening wit their carry-onbags, those things. and what makessense, so i lk forward toorkingith t committee to infme by perhaps expectations, managin those expectations, and then trying toork again through the traini and retrning of tsos and othertsa personnel to make surehat their role in this layered security apparatus that we have in t united states makes see, tha we don't have undue interrupts o commerce and fr flow of people and goods while still maintainghe security you mentioned. so look forward to working withou and the committee on those issu. >> thank you, mr. pistole, and i thank you for being willing to ep up. i think thisill be a bit more
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multi dimensiol challeng you bring the security background and i think igreat expertise. as we discussed yestery, i think there'going to be a lot of managent components that i look forward to working with you on. thk you, mr. chairman. >> thank u, senator warner. senator the. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and deputy director pistole, i appreciate your interest in seing as administratorf the tsa. like a number of my colleagues i've been concerned with t administration's delay in filling in mview a very top position. this isven before others widr their names. i think you would bring an important persctive tohe tsa when it comes to securing traveling for the american public. we welcome your interest and willingness to serve. >> thank you. >> no question we tas a lot of
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challenges going forward when it comes to addressing t changing terrorist thats. a couple of concerns i have with regard to tsa dealing with issu and the traveling public, is there seems to be this complacency from the general public. and secondly, the need to bolster securirotocols as was witnessed by the december bombin attempt inetroit and the recent new yorkity in which mr. shahzad almost ff country after purchasing a one-way ticket to dubai. stil cllenges out there. it's going to be always hard to -- we' alway asking for some of our agencies to do more with less. and get your response to .sue because the budget request for tsa is $8.16 billion for this year, which is a 6.6% increase over fiscal year 201 and i think as you know, tuesd
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e white house issued a director to all agenc heads, trim ateast 5% from their budgets. the question i have has to do with an award that was recently issued by the tsa, it was an i.t.ervices contract tt was $52 mlion me expensive tn the lower bid from a contractor with almost the same technical sotion ratings. given e fiscal crisis that our country is facing, does this make senor taxpayers? >> wel thank you, senator. i'm not familiar with that particar contract. i was not privy to any of those dealings yet. i'm still dealing with the fbi , frankly, and all those issues. but confirme obviouslyhat is one of the key areas, make sure that taxpayer dollars are being wisely invested in the properools and technology to do the things that we need to do to protect the traveling public. so, yes, i pledge to work with e committee on those ises. bring a sense oftrong fiscal responsibility to this positi. >> and i would appreciate as y
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undertake to do that, looking at the prorement process. i'll jt give you a little more background o ts since you're not awanted wicquainted with it. be poorly handled.at appears to it's been the subje of at least two successful protests and a third is pending with the gao. during the course of those protests, the ga found there wererregities inhe acquisition process in adon, due the lengthf time that has passed since the ppol for i.t.ervices was first issued, it's mynderstanding that the scope of work sought by tsa may not accurately reflect its rrent needs. so there's been a long tail on th thing. it's beenn theworks, as i said, for a coupl of years. and i wld hope that -- it ems to me at least that giv the excess cost for the current contract award and the flawsn the solitation process that tsa ought to undertake a fresh, independent review of this procurement and report back to congress on plans to address
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ncns about theprocurement and plans timprove that acquisition process. so i hope th we can count on you. as i mentioned earlier, these are hard me fiscally for the country. we're dealing with unprecedented vels of deficit speing and debt. and you hear stories like this, i doesn't do anythingo bolster the public's cfidence their government, and its ility to make sure they're being good stewards o america's tax dollars. so i appreciate your following up on that, and hope that we can coinue twork with you and try and bring a resolution to this that's acceptable and in the best interest of the taxpers. i know you don't have extensive background when itomes to the aviation sector in partular but i'd like to know more about what y think is the tsa's role in aviation, including sller airplas in places like south dakotand acrosthe country. there is no question, i think, that these -- you know, we hear
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this allhe time from those who use airpo from a general aviation standpoin and obviously we've got lot of commercial travelers. but ho do you see the tsa interacting an dealing with the general aviaon comnity and the issues they're concerned about with regard to safety? >> thank yo senator. and i think it's back to the -- my earlier statement about tsa being a threat-based intelligence driven agency and trying tswer the daily question, w do we man t risk? so witheneral aviatn clearly becomes what are the risks associationed with general aviati. wew of a numbe of interest by terrorists of using what may be seen as a softe pteive screen, if you will, on general aviation than commercial avtion. so it's somhing i need to reew all the lest threat assessments to see what infoation or what haslready been do, and then try take
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me infmed judgments, again, with the fiscal restraints that yo mentioned. recognizin you can't be all things to all people at all times in all places. so how do we allocate those resources. i lk forwd to working with the committee on those issues. >> my time is expired. >> when your examples like that, it's impornt to tell the committee about it because we're notware of that. so thatould be helpf. >> wwill certain do that. >> all right. >> tnk you, mr. chairm. first of i want to say, mr. piste, thank you for your service, not justour willingness to serve in this positi but for yr service with the fbi since 19 3. >> >> i nt to thank your wife and your daughters. they've made sacrifices, too, so thank yofor the partnership they've provided for you.
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i think you've gotreat credentials for this job. i enjoyed our meeting the other day you and i spoke about technology. i wan to echo my lleague's comments about purposes of efficiency. we've heard abou long lines in r airports in orlando and miami and there's a lot o concern abo the modernization of the w that the tsa employeework, a l of folks are on overtime because they're not using perhaps the best technology ible. so i look forward to your reviing those contracts and systems and evaluations to make sure we're doing the bt thing possible and inow i have your commitment to doing that. >> absoluly, senator. lo forward to doing that. >> also on technology, we spoke about this issue ande've talked about it here on this committee fore when we were evuate sg the folk that's came before u. and that is the general frustration that the american peop have that an 85-year-old grandmother or my 5-ye-old child will be pulled aside for
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exa reening or delayed when we know that more than 90% of ou teats are from islamic extremists. and we nd to do a bter job of protecting against those who areoing to do danger to us and trying to sed other peopl thugh who se no danger to the american ople. i know there are lawsn place that as we discut tie our hands in some extent aut how we can use prective modeling techlogy, but wld lik for you to expre your comtment that we're going to try tose technology, look to what other countries like israel are doing. they've got software they're doing that checks the stress on people. they use a lot of just personal interaction with the folks who t on the plane to t to qualify them. and i jus want to -- i want to t yourommitment on the record that we're going toook fo innovative ways, that the average arican traleho presents no threat is goingo
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be able to get throughquicker, but we're goingo providehe scruti we need on those who migh endanger o country. >> thank you, senator, and i preciate your focus on technology. we know there a lot out there, the estion is, is it theight technology with the right application athe right time. d with tsa beingt o that yeredsecurity, my hope and goal is to make surehat inllence will help inform those decisions and judgments as to what that right technology is, going back to christmas day, that concealmentethod and -- we discussed. but clearl i believe that technology has to iorm and able thosefunctions. i had the opportunity to meet with dr. o'tool from the science and technology directive last week to have some of these discussions about what is the technolo the department or agency is looking at, i had an opportunity to have a demonstration out at the integratio facilityust sth of reagaairport, the tsa has, to do somf the testing of the
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equipmt, the enhabsed nced igin technology. buagain, with all the great work, for example, the israelis do in terms of the behavior detection, obviously a does that, asart of that layered security. if there's technology that helps enable that in terms of information obviously and the fbi we have behavioral analysis, experts who focus on those type of things, again, all enabled by not not enkumbered by technology. >>e hav to do what senator warnersaid which is these folk havto be involven customer service to i appreate the fact that it seems no the ts fol are
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tryitry ing to be more friendly. i apprecte theact that when you travel with kids like i did, with four kids,he was a separate line for families aveling with a baby and all thosthings. i prooappreciate that. the balanc you have is to keep us safe but not bden our civil liberties and try to get us through the airport as quickly as possible. >> agreed. >> if you can fus on the customer service aspectn the onhand and going after the actual people who threatens on the other, i think that would be a great focus for you. >> thankyou, senato look forward to it if confirmed. >> tnk you, mr. chairman. hank you. pistole, i'm going to ask e next question. i have to then do something, nator dorgan will behe chairman, which he probably oughto be anyway, and we'll carry the hearing. th-- i want to just go on with what senator is saying. the tradeoff with the american people, we're going to put you
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to a certain amount of inconvience and that incoeniencis usually related tohe last incidentspposed to forward looking. but the tradeoff ise're going to do that, but in return we' going to ve you good service. and friendly service and fast service. especiallyast service. but thorou. e technology helps on that. i'een through a lot of been thumb prints and other things that simply aret being used. i wanteo go to what senator warner said aboutdulles airport. it's one of theost frustrating exences i've ever been through. when you walk a half a mile, then te a train for hal a mile to go up and down ove,ou know, various spaces and then you're reay confronted wi, like 15 or 20 different stations for people to go through and only two of them are manned, and it takes 45 minutes,hat's not
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the carrying out the bargain that youo for securitynd in fact it probably rushes serity. it may have the opposite effect. my fir question is -- of you is, is that a solvable probm? i dodo a great deal of travel d so ian't talk about los angeles airport or sanrancisco airport and all the rest of them. but -- and deal, as does senator dorgan, and senator begich with very small airports d everhing, it's fine. but there's got to be a solution. we can't have that dulles syndrome. i'm assuming if it's there, it's in other places. the deal is, you get touer security, you get tougher technology, buin return for that, you get better service. and friendly service. andhat's a fair deal. we're not upholding at least at
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those airrts that i can think of, that deal. how youo th? and with the budge cuts that may come your way or not, that senator thu mened. do you have enough money t sufficiently staff out other -- i can't tell you the anger of not just your chairman here, but all the people in both line muttering as they look in both directions seeing all kindsf unopenedlines. >> thank you m chairman. you've obviously touched on a ry significant issue and in theourse of thi process i've had the opportunity to hear som personal frustrang times, cluding one of a certain senator who had two-hour wait recently,ery frustrating. just in terms oe economic impact and the efficiencies of that. so i think the staffing issue,
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agn, has to b informed b- we have to make sure that the pele who are doingit, making the staffing squig ining decisi inform and have a good buness model. rkinwith the committee, making sure there are metrics in plac what gets measured gets done. if we're not paying aention to the things what's the throughput rate, i bieve those things e,ut juston't ve enoughnformation at this point, other tha to say it is one of my top priorities to look at because customer service has to b pitive to keep the americanublic engaged, while keeping the security at the refront. >> i uerstand that. i'moing to ask one more questi, whichou can answer anone more that you can think about. you go to another part of dulles airport, which iwhere neral aviation lands. and senator thune brought this . and there's nothing.
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there are no waiting lines. nobody is checking identity. you starry whatever you have. you walk out, youalkon there are n - not even the simple, you know, scanns that you walk through. d that is the majority of airplanes in t air at any given time. now i'm not talking about crop dusters, i'm talking about, you know, ybe some kinds of kingairs, but certainly ts. and they are the majority of the flights that are using our antiquated, you know, air trafficontrol system as we try to buiewone. they d't participate in this. they've done little things. but they're a very tight group. it's very eas for them to make phone calls the finance committee, and this mmittee, and shut down any effort to make em spend more money. they're dng it a little bit morehis year, but not ch. are you rdy to take that on? becausnobody else has been. >> thank you, mr. chairman viously if confirmed i would
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look forward to engaging the neral aviation commutyn terms of what they s as the be approach in terms of risk management recogning tt they have a vesd interest in certain process, but also recognizing th threats can come from general aviation aircraft such as we saw in february with the irs building in auin, texas. we know of other terrorist groups whoave expressed interest in crop duers, different things. so if it's a vulnerability that's not being addressed, that's what i want to make a determination of and look forward to workinghou and the committee to find ways forward to address those ises. >> so that is a strong yes. >> that is a yes. >> you will not h, years from n, failed to address that and change the baviorf general avtion? remember, they can make phone lls. and, bohen they makehone calls, every just bows down, exce me and aew others here, and goes away.
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and it's unfair, it's an unjust matter. i'll leave my other question, and turn the chair overo senator dorgan and i thank you, and i will certainly beoting for you. and instantly say out o turn perhaps that we'll be having an off the floor markup on you nomination next week >> thank you very mu, mr. chairman. >> m chairman, thank y very much. and mr. pistole,'m going to be supporti your nomination. i think you have a set of credentials that sorely need at tsa. and i think all of us on this committeeould believe that that has been vacant far t long for a number of circumstces. but it is aritically important posion. decades ago, you used to justo to the airport and wk on ton airplane when they told yout was time. a lot of younger amerins have never experienced that but you ju boarded an airplane. and then they began to hij airports, particularly to cuba,
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but some oer locations as well, and pretty sn they started screing passengers to make sure they didn't have a weap when they got on, and the reens has become more intensive and more intrusive and nowada, of course the chalnges of screening are pretty substantial. all of us have wched a 6-year-old child being wanded at an art somlace or a catholic nun being intensively scened, you know, so you watch e things an you just shake your head. on the other hand, we understand we want to get on anirple that is fre of weapons and tha is not likely toe commandeered or hacked or threatened, so there is this issue of inconvenience. screening is an inconvenience. the queson is howmuch, and cane d the job necessary for screening and proteche americ peoplend protect the traveling public while reducing the inconvenience to thextent
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possible. and as senator rocfeller indicated, we traditionally otect ait the last attack and the last mode of attack. you know, we found out that you could put a bomb in a se and so we start taking off our shoes. not until then did we start taking off our shoes, but then we did. we found they c p a bomb in underwear, that has notested in a specific action, but, you know, we're continuing to -- i wasn't trying to be funny there, as i was thinkg about it, we're -- we're. >> i think minds were wandering. >> and bottles of three ounces of liquid and we're continuing to try t address t things we now see canhappen. so i want t ask y series of qutions. number one, you said you were northwest 253 which occurred at christmasim with a man that boarded an airplane destined for the united stas with a bomb in his derwear and i want to ask you, as you lked atthat tell
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me whayou think the failings were. iave a notion of a fair number failings, but what did you nse as someone involved in the investigatns, what were the failings? >> well, senator, ihink there were -- there was a lot of information that was out there in terms of the intelligence community collection. unfortunately none of it was dispositive or specific enough to say this individual is currently ping a threat. and so the cllenge that -- which i tnk has been reviewed and discussedt some length i how do we ensur as a u. government that all those holdings of information,ven inuding perhaps a misspelling of a name, as happened with abdulmutallab, the timely sharing of information to the decision makers who have to ensure, for exame,hould a vi be revoked on the onehand, should a person be on a no-fly or selected list on the other hand, what i the other
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intelligce about the origin, is the any intelligence about the type of device. those are three k areas that i think the u. government identified and isorking at dressing. >> let me just ask more spifically. this is a potentialerrorist whose father went to american authorities and pnted at his son and said, this g is potentiay troublesome, hanging around wh people that are fficult, probably terrorist. >> he' concerned about him, right. >> so a father points to his son and tells american authorities, watch this. >> rit. >> as a result of that, he is no put on a noly list. he doe n have an open visa th is revoked. so there's a two major failures, it seems to me. might have been spelling, might have b something else. might have been ople asleep at the dks, up and down theline. t then in addition to that, in additi to somebody saying, here's the guy, watch him, and we don't wat him, then he gets
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to an airport with a bomb in his underwear. so how doe he get through a screening at an airport with a bo in his underwea >> ase know, senator, from going back over all the information we have and through the debriefings of mr. abdulmutallab, ofourse who has cooper sin that time, he wase to get through the screening inm ter dam, schiphol airport, but the technique, he never touched it so the trace detecon equipment would novemb picked up any explosives because he would not have touched it. there were no metallic parts, obviously. is w a chemical combination try as tone, try tri peroxide is the intor. when the passengers hed what theyalled firecrackers, there's a glycol,nitiator that
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goes into the tapthat was what, when people described firecrackers tches the tatp initiat initiang. it's a common explosive devi, not dissilar to c 4, from military use. so it was -- we were very, very fortunate that the main charge which was nearly double the amount that richard reid had in his shoe, you mentioned the shoe bomb of december of '01. we did some testing afterwards richardd and o an unpressurized fuselage of a plane would have blown a hole abt ts big i the side of the fuselage, unpressurized. of course pressurized, ablmutlab h nea twice that amount, and so obviously the damage would have been much more snificant probabl causingatastrophic failure to that aircraft. so tts a cllenge of, how do we work with our inrnational partnerso make
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sure that they have the latest technology, techniques and training that if flights are ing to come into the.s. that they apply the same staards that we have. and i know secretary napolitano has been engaged in a worldwide effortn that regard to engage our foreign partners to ensure th those standards are similar, if not better than the u.s. standards for anybody ming in. sohat's been one of th challenges since christmas day. and if confirmed, i look forward to working with our ternational partne, both in the security law enforcement but obviously the aviation dustry to m sure those screening standards are up to the u.s. stanrds. >> i he additional questions, t i'll wait and ask in another round. senator hutchinson. senator begich, do you have additional questions? ll, lete continue then on thisscreen. again, theather says here's the guy, a we miss a bunch of opportities to revoke a visa and put on a noly st, this person that's been identied,
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reasonablyo for us. and en he gets through a scen because he's -- he'sone whatever he has done with this concled bomb to mask its image a scrnnd to not have metal parts to it let me askbout the prevalence of the capility of the scre devices at most airpts both here and abroato detect exactly wt went through a screen undetected at christmas ti. sure. obviously the x-ray machines, e typical ones that you see at most airrts would not pick up the type ofevice he used. because there are no metal parts to it. the ne advanced imaging technology machines would ge a much better oppounity, because there would be an anoly identifiedn -- hopefully, that's one of the things that need to make sure the traing is up to speed so if an amaly is detected then a further patdown or other additional
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screeng woul be propriate. again, it's a -- >> but those are not in use largely at this point. there have been a numr enhanced machines deployed through u.s. airports. thers a plan f i belie 450 by the end of e year. but i'll check my numbers on that. there is plan to do that. all thehile addressing whethe that isocusing onyesterday's threat and they've now developed a new threat so we have to mak sure the intelligence is helpi info the latest r and d, research and devepment, for the best technology to defeat other that. >> some of the 9/11 conspirators, rrorists, they went to a small airport in in to board an airplane,ever again to have to go through a screening process. when you talk about deploying 400,he question is, will the entrance into thsystem from a small airport in a reme area detect o catch that circumstan? >> you're absolutely rit,
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obviously muhammad atta flying from bosto logan on the morning of/11 consider we belie, the greaterpossibility, and from spicious activity behavior perspective as opposed to having a larger gro flying from boston logan on the two hts they decided to have four go fromportland, maine, to look less suspicious screening is a key pt of this. >> let m ask you about scening and special the issue of bod imaging. >> s. >> have you seen the examples of the most sophisticated body imaging? and give me ur evaluion of that in the context of being husband, a fatr, a citizen, d also in the conte o being someone who wants to see everything about anybody that goes on an airplane in order to keep a weaponffer that plane. >> you've hit on tha nsion, the dynamic thetsa and government is dealing with. i have had a demonstration of the screening equipment, and the
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privacyteps that are currently employed obviously hav a screener who never seeserson reviewing the image in a separate room. th person who is physically engaging the passeng never sees that image and thatmage is deleted immediately after that pson is cleared. so there are privacyish -- privacy safeguards built in that being said, some people are concerned out, they're modest would not want that. at this poin that type of enhanced, or the ait screening, the enhandmaging technolog is optional. if they don want to gthrough that, they can go through the traditional metal tector, wanding, patdown as aaropriate result. so i think it's thees technology available for right no tryg to bce the security with t priva issues. but if confirmed, i would look forward to working with the committee in termsof, are we using e best apprch.
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again, bh from a training techniques and technology rspective. >> ye gng to be cononted wihat issue lot, think, as we try to determine what is it we implement that further strengthens our ability to detect a weapon. let me a the issue of t to move frequen flys through these lines. as you know, thereas a company thatas called clear that started up and was established. are you familiar with that at all? >> i've had someriefings ont and have a lite bit of information about it. >> that's aompany that took applications from people, measured the- got their background and measured their iris of their eyes, took their pri finger prints and so on. when tha persoigned up, paid a fee, went through the screening line with tir fingerprints and so on. immediately they deteined, all right, we know that person. thaterson is in the system. that person's a presbyterian
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minister from south dakota, or whatever. we know this. that company, however, i believe nt bankrupt. and do you kw whether there are other effortsn the private sector or public sector to try to address theuestion of someone who flies twicevery week? that's their job as a salespson or representative, and who perhaps w can know much better and move through much more quickly? i'm not talking about members of congress here, i'm talking about people who are salesmen and others who fly all the time. >> i underd there are some forts underway in the private sector to replate that sine model and to make sure the messaging is accurate, so 's people realize that they're still going to go thrgh screening. it's more cciergeervice, if you wi, of being able to go with that trusted i.d. and identification system to expedi that process. if nfirmed, i would obviously look into that andee if there are viable ways of
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doing that. again, ensuring the safety of e travelinpublic. >> one last question,f i might. let's assume tha you are confird in a mter of days and you a long, long last assume this role because it's been vant far too long. what is your most immediate and urgent concern as you turn your atteion to running this agency? >> thankyou, senator. so one of the first things i did when i was nominated was to mee at a huarters and get a threat brfing, an intelligence briefing. so my t priority is making sure that tsa h the latest inteigen, threat information, and is making informed judgments as to how to allocate theirresources. so that's a top priority, followed very close by addressing workforce develment ises, as imentioned. and then third, engaging all stakeholders in the busines of tsa toe sure they knowha
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their voice could be heard, and that all the issue that they are dealing wit will b addressed by tsa. i sai one last question, let me ask o more, if i might. could you smit to us -- i'll bmit a question in wring on the issue of soft target terrorists obviously take aook the targetpportunities to commit an a of terrorism in r country and they see what we would conser hard targets, that is the targe we are now protecting vy substantially, then they see softargets where our attention is not there because we've not experienced e same threat there. i'd like to ask if you might, fr the standpoint of tranortation. >> sure. >> givus your estimate of what are the lists of soft tget that's concern and you will acquire yourtension. i won't ask tt publicly here, ll ask that y submit that to us in writing if you would. >> be glad to do that, senator. i've seen a number of classified reports, as youndicate both by
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th dhs andhe intelligence analys group also within the fbi and national counteerrorism cenr have all done collaborative work in that regard. there are aumr o st target out there. >> well, let me j others who have thanked your family for leg you for some publi service for u >> thank you, senator. much apprected. >> as isaid, i will be a strong supporter of your nination and hope tha we can move this with great speed because
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