mr. katko: ok. we're back on the record. second panel for today's hearing. our first witness is ms. lorraine howerton from the u.s. travel association. she's responsible for outreach to u.s. travels legislative priorities in congress and for representing the organization on the aviation security advisory committee which has turned into a wonderful organization doing a lot of good work. she served as vice president for legislative affairs for the aircraft owners and pilots association. she spearheaded the creation of the congressional general aviation caucus. ms. howerton is now recognized for five minutes for an opening statement. ms. howerton: good morning, chairman katko and members of the congress -- is this better? good morning, chairman katko and members of the committee. it's my pleasure to offer testimony to you this morning and thank you for the opportunity to allow me to testify on behalf of the u.s.

travel association. u.s. travel is the national, nonprofit organization representing more than 1,200 member organizations across all sectors of the travel industry that generates $2.4 trillion in economic output and supports 15.6 million american jobs. t.s.a. precheck has been a major break through in providing optimal security. today precheck is an established program that's available at more than 200 airports with 52 participating airlines. yet, enrollment is stagnant. approximately six million people are enrolled and another two million have precheck as a result of global entry. efforts to continue the program's expansion should be a priority for t.s.a. and the expansion should focus on four areas which we refer to as the four p's -- process, promotion, price, and prioritization. we urge the trump administration and congress to place a renewed focus on

refining and enhancing the program to increase participation, particularly making enrollment more convenient without sacrificing security. u.s. travel offers the following recommendations that would further protect precheck, protect traveler privacy and give the american people the best return on their investments of traveler fees. we recommend that t.s.a. analyze and develop a process for spontaneous enrollment. too often the current requirement for two forms of identification is a significant barrier to travelers enrolling in the program and a modification to only one document would make it easier for people to spontaneously enroll. a real i.d. driver's license is one example how one document can serve the security purposes for enrolling in precheck. we also recommend offering volume discounts as financial incentive or a cost break to large companies to help spark more volume enrollments. e upfront cost of an $85

enrollment fee is a measurable and significant cost with harder to measure returns. providing cantonity discounts to traveler managers, especially those who supply applicants for t.s.a. for onsite enrollment may get more corporate interest. helping families also is warranted and we encourage t.s.a. and its partners at o.m.b. to reconsider the rule for children and explore a subscription model for fees that will be paid on an annual basis, not five years at a time. while younger children, 12 and under, are allowed to join a parent in precheck, older children cannot. the one-time cost of enrolling a family of five may be a significant factor for many families and deter enrollment. as it relates to checkpoint efficiency and as we head into one of the heaviest travel seasons, we know it's extremely important not to have long wait times and we know that t.s.a.

mitigates the eb and flow of peak travel by deploying various techniques to safely move people. one of the techniques is manage inclusion, or as we heard today, enhanced inclusion in the precheck lanes. blending of populations confuses the traveling public, aggravates precheck customers and diminishing the value of the program to both the government and the traveler. we understand that manage inclusion is being phased out. however, phasing out managed inclusion without phasing in other strategies and screening techniques to maintain efficiency will only lead to longer lines and new frustrations. we hope t.s.a. develops a plan to solve the problem rather than opting to trade one set of problems for a different set. another recommendation we make is for congress to help t.s.a. get rid of the roadblocks in expanding the number of third-party prescreening companies.

currently there is one company. it will help grow enrollment. lastly, i would be remiss if i did not remind this good committee that one third of passenger fees are being deterred to the general fund until 2025. comparing 2013 to 2017, travelers paid $2 billion more in fees. $3.9 billion versus $1.9 billion for the exact same service. revenue raised from aviation security fees should go towards securing travelers, not to deficit reduction. we support solutions to repeal the current diversion. this concludes my statement and i would look forward to answering any questions. mr. katko: thank you, ms. howerton. appreciate your attention. mentioned great points that we'll follow up on. i'm glad t.s.a. has remained here. so i thank you for staying and taking the time. the second witness is sharon

pinkerton for airlines for america. in this position, ms. pinkerton leads policy development on legislative and regulatory matters. working closely with capitol hill and the administration. before joining she served as an assistant for aviation policy, planning and environment at the federal aviation administration. primary to retirement at the f.a.a. she served as counsel to subcommittee chairman john micah. you're dating yourself. just -- brandon lafell ms. pinkerton is -- braffter] ms. pinkerton is recognized for five minutes. ms. pinkerton: thank you so much, chairman katko. we appreciate the opportunity to be here today to talk to you about these important issues. my real message to y'all today is really to say thank you. i think that as a result of your work, t.s.a.'s work together, partnering with airlines and airports, we are cautiously optimistic that

t.s.a.'s ready for the summer travel. 4% growth. it's significant. now, the reason for the caution in my optimism, we have not forgotten what happened in 2016. we talked about it here today. there was a terrible d.h.s. i.g. report. t.s.a. ratcheted the dials on the security equation one way without adjusting staffing and other processes. and we did end up with three-hour wait times. i think that's something none of us want. so our lesson learned is actions have consequences. now, that's why, chairman katko, we're supporting your idea of transitioning away from using k-9's to put non-precheck passengers into the precheck lane as long as that's coupled with the other side of the security equation which is as we discussed getting more people into the precheck lane or this other idea that i'd

like to start putting on the table which is having another vetting procedure in place that will enable some form of known travelers to have a different experience, not necessarily the precheck experience, but a risk-based security experience. set another way, i think we have to start by understanding that staffing isn't the be all and end all. it's one very important part of the puzzle. commend t.s.a. for getting us o somewhere between 1,600 more f.t.e.'s year over year. but it's really important we actually look at this as a process and improving our security processes and very importantly, deploying better technology. so it's with that big picture 're making the following recommendations. i want to talk about precheck first. if we all agree that we don't want to put non-precheck passengers into the precheck lane, the question that's still on recommendations. i want the table is, how do we those precheck numbers up? we are not on a path right now

to meet the 25 million that t.s.a. had. first, i think we all need to recognize that for some reason, despite chairman katko's legislation and the legislation embraced by this subcommittee, the third-party enrollment program has not delivered. not quite sure how it's gotten all mixed up but i think you need to get to the bottom of that. what i'd like to think about is, what can we do, putting that aside for the moment? we heard darby mention it a little bit. t.s.a. and c.b.p. need to merge their trusted traveler programs. we have two programs out there, two sets of infrastructure, two sets of locations. we need to merge those where it makes sense. instead of having t.s.a. and c.b.p. compete, let's combine resources and have one simple easy to use application process. i think that working together, t.s.a. and c.b.p. will be able to make signing up more

accessible. darby talked about mobile enrollment. we should be there today. we're living in a mobile society. there is no reason not to have mobile enrollment. let's make those enrollment centers more location friendly and not so far away and the schedule needs to be something other than 8:00 to 4:00. all the ideas lorraine talked about about some fee incentives, for families and big groups, make a lot of sense. let's move on to some other ideas. we believe in congress truly believes 99% -- let's say 95% of the traveling public is not the problem, we're really looking for that small percentage of people that are a problem. we need to start thinking differently about the checkpoint. we believe that passengers who may be willing to submit commercial data and subject themselves to a different level of vetting, maybe not as far as the precheck level of vetting,

but something easier and faster, can get a different experience, perhaps using dogs and managed inclusion, etc. that's one way to achieve some efficiencies. t.s.a. and c.b.p. need to start working together on biometrics. right now they're both going in different directions. we need, again, to harmonize and focus on technology that's going to enable a more smooth process at the airport but also increase our security. we need to accelerate the c.t. technology. again, i want to say thank you. the language in the omnibus was very helpful, but we need to move that deployment on quicker. we need more machines out there, more quickly. i know you've been to amsterdam. i have as well. it's good for screeners. it's good for the detection, the types of emerging threats we are seeing. can't say enough about dogs. it's one of our highest priorities. we're not where we need to be.

darby mentioned 242 right now. they should be at 372. we're pushing that t.s.a. accelerate their third-party k-9 certification program, both in cargo where they're making progress and also in the passenger environment. finally, couldn't agree more with lorraine. we're diverting $1.3 billion a year away from security and making it go to deficit reduction. that needs to change. that money could come back in, be spent on c.t. and dogs and i look forward to having the conversation with you. thank you. mr. katko: thank you very much. excellent points you made. as always, i appreciate your testimony. our third witness is ms. wendy reiter who is testifying on the national association of airport executives. served as director of aviation security for seattle tacoma international airport. we often get excellent input from them and looking forward to hearing from you again. in this position she leads the port of seattle's aviation security department and oversees all t.s.a. mandates that involve the security of

the 16,000 employees and travelers at the sea-tac airport. she was a station manager for southwest airlines and director of customer service for northwest airlines where she received numerous awards for outstanding leadership and customer service. ms. reiter is now recognized for five minutes for an opening statement. ms. reiter: chairman katko and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss operations at t.s.a. precheck s, the program, and the airport wait times. my name is wendy reiter and i currently serve as director of aviation security for seattle-tacoma airport, which is owned and precheck program, and operated by port of seattle. i also recently served as vice chair of the transportation security services committee of america association of airport executives. the story of sea-tac is one of dramatic growth. from 31 million passengers in 2010 to almost 47 million last year, the growth is a reflection of the dynamic economy and the global

relevance of the puget sound reason and sea-tac's increasingly important role in the national airspace reason. we are working overtime to try and accommodate the increasing demand. on that side that includes technology, infrastructure, and staffing. we are currently in the midst of a $3 billion capital investment program and have spent more than $20 million in staffing and technology to reduce the burden on t.s.a. and increase the efficiency at their checkpoints. similarly, t.s.a. is being required to quickly increase their capacity to handle our growth. we deeply appreciate the partnership that we have with them, including both local t.s.a. staff and t.s.a. leadership in washington, d.c. i also want to thank the subcommittee for your work on the checkpoint opt anyization and efficiency act, -- optimization and efficiency

act, which was passed into law. however, there's more work that needs to be done. at sea-tac we have set a wait time goal of 20 minutes or less at the passenger screening checkpoints. we see this effort not only as a customer service priority but a critical security measure. we know the best way to protect a soft target, such as an aggregation of people in the public area, is to process them to the sterile side of the airport as quickly as possible. unfortunately, meeting that goal has been difficult, in large part because t.s.a. hiring cannot keep pace with the attrition of t.s.a. officers to the higher paying jobs that our region's economy is creating. to give you a sense of our challenges, we have 32 lanes currently available for security screening. yet, t.s.a. has not been able to staff more than 26 lanes recently at peak. we're approaching wait times

almost one hour. to compensate, we rely greatly on t.s.a.'s use of passenger screening canines for what they fer to canine enhanced screening. we believe that these dogs are the best possible investment that the t.s.a. can make. their accuracy is better than screening machines, and they assess current checks. they provide the greatest efficiency gains. therefore, we have significant concerns about reducing the ability to offer modified screening for general lane passengers that are screened by canines. we strongly support efforts to maximize t.s.a. precheck enrollment. however, we know that one of the biggest threats to airports and passenger security is long wait times that create soft targets. reducing the through put benefits of canines will increase that threat by more than doubling wait times at

sea-tac wait lines. the call out of one canine resulted in incident command because wait times that push general screening lanes onto our escalators. they should consider the impact of wait times at the deployment of c.t. machines in the next few years. we support the added security that advanced technology will provide but significant work will need to be done to address its implementation impact such as through put rate, false alarm. while passenger screening is by law the sole responsibility of t.s.a., airports play a critical role as partners. to that end we hope any changes that would impact security would be done in collaboration with us, rather than being imposed. thank you for your time today, and i look forward to your questions. mr. katko: thank you very much, ms. reiter. i am taken aback that you have

one-hour wait times. that's not good from a security standpoint. it's an unsecured area of the airport and that's exactly what we don't want to hear. we have to address that. in a meaningful manner. we will follow up on that for ure. mr. xt witness here is michael mccormick, executive director and chief operating officer for the global business and travel association. previously, he served as managing partner of hudson crossing, l.l.c., a travel industry advisory business. mccormick has served as president of bistravel.com and president of rosen bluth international. mr. mccormick, you are now recognized forify minutes for n opening statement.

thank you, chairman katko, ranking member watson coleman, members of the subcommittee. we appreciate the opportunity to testify today. i'm michael mccormick, executive director and chief operating officer of the global business travel association, a role i have been since 2009. his is gbta is headquartered in alexandria with operations on six continents. we have over 9,500 members and manage over $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. gbta has 38 chapters across this country and operations around the world. i want to thank chairman katko for the time he recently spent in our new york state chapter. they're bragging to all the chapters about your january visit. the annual convention in the u.s. is must attend event a year for business travel. we'll have 7,000 attendees in san diego this year with people from all over the u.s. as well as 50 countries.

last year's event had an economic impact of $22.5 million just on the city of boston alone in those four days. the event and the economic impact is just a small sample of the total impact of business travel in practice. and although we are a global organization, we're celebrating our 50th anniversary as the u.s. trade association here in virginia. in july, 201, we released a report that really showed the industry's responsible for $547 billion, about 3% of u.s. g.d.p., which is about the size of the domestic auto market. we support 7.4 million jobs and generate $135 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. we always say, business travel drives business growth. companies invest in business

travel to drive new business, create new jobs, build shareholder value. we're concerned about past travel problems in screening as well as past statements and policies in foreign visitation will impact the rest of 2018 and beyond. we've been a supporter of precheck since the first iteration of registered travel -- traveler and because business travelers take over 500 million domestic business trips in this country alone. our survey cites moving through airport security is one of the largest pain points till this day. precheck offers travelers risk-based -- intelligence driven aviation security. time is money for business travelers. the hassell factor that hurts the economy. we found t.s.a. precheck not only improves the airport screening process but the entire travel experience by

significant amount. however, the current practice of allowing non-t.s.a. precheck members in the security lines continues to be voiced frequently as a concern by travelers enrolled in the program. it's our belief this continued practice undermines the emphasis to enroll and calls into question the entire premise of the program which is prescreening travelers through background checks have been identified as safe before they arrive at the airport. we need to put an end to this practice. gbta fully supports the work done by the committee to limit those not only cleared for precheck to be allowed in those lanes. gbta is prepared to support new legislation to prohibit the practice. as we saw in the summer of 2016, t.s.a. precheck cannot be the sole answer to long security lines. in gbta's opinion, accurate travel forecast, well thought out policies and solid analysis of historical data, like other

own business travel index, are key to t.s.a.'s ability to adequately staff checkpoints. our most frequent findings show u.s. origin business for travel is expected to accelerate significantly in 2018, advancing 6.1%, followed by roughly 7% growth in 2019 and 2020. business travel gains have not reached this level since 2011. also in these findings is an unusually high impact of many global uncertainties. the global economic policy uncertainty index, which began in 1997, has hit an all-time 20-year high. we are at a time of conflicting and sometimes seemingly contradictory views on how the business travel marketplace is trending and what the future holds. on one hand, as lower corporate taxes are pushed forward and business regulations are rolled back, some would argue business travel is healthy. but other underlying factors have decidedly more negative impact on the future of

business travel, including trade policy renegotiation, terrorism, travel and immigration bans, sanctions, electronic bans, and geopolitical tensions. gbta is concerned that this uncertainty, along with ongoing rhetoric and policies, will send the message that the u.s. is closed for inbound global business. this dampening demand for the u.s. as a business travel destination could cause a lasting negative economic impact that is masked in the near term by offsetting economic policies. this began with the current administration's first travel ban, which cost $185 million in business travel bookings in just one week. then, with the second and third ban followed which is awaiting ruling from the supreme court, driving further uncertainty. there's no question that uncertainty is bad for business travel and bad for our role in the global economy. when we looked at our uncertainty forecast last year, the impact it was having was

significant. we projected a loss of $1.3 billion in overall travel-related expenditures in the u.s. which includes hotels, food, car rental, shopping, all the ancillary expenses. that included $250 million lost in spending from inbound business travelers from europe and the middle east alone. finally, our new forecast coming out will be out in august looking at not only last year's total numbers but the impact going forward. so looking forward, again, we're really concerned about all of this as it affects meetings and business travel. when you're looking at that planning, that business, it's it's d one to two planned one to two years out and we will only begin to see the impact of these decisions this year. so, again, it goes without saying that gbta strongly supports all of our efforts to keep the skies, borders, and country safe. we continue to be a proponent for expanding security programs. i think a lot of the discussion we talked about here today is so far and the questions coming

forward, we have an opportunity. i think there's been buy-in from t.s.a. at the top but not always the action we are looking for. again, we have to find ways to look at the cumulative effect of all these policies and, again, create the -- change the rhetoric and perception that the u.s. is closed for business. gbta stands ready to improve the travel process and make sure this becomes a reality. again, we thank you, again, for the opportunity to be here today. mr. katko: thank you, mr. mccormick. i appreciate your testimony and the testimony of all of you. i'm glad t.s.a. is here to hear it all. can you each quickly tell me, are the concerns raised very valid concerns and some very good ideas like merging trusted travelers and t.s.a. how much interaction, how much -- how should i say -- meaningful interaction have you had with t.s.a. and sharing

your ideas with them? if you could share your ideas. each of you. >> we have shared our recommendations with t.s.a. last november we published a report called "transforming security at the airports." we actually had given this report to the administrator and many of the people over at t.s.a. excuse me. in addition -- excuse me -- ms. howerton: the checkpoint of the future report that came to congress embodied the same recommendations that i oppose here today. ms. pinkerton: we work with t.s.a. almost on a daily basis d we can't say enough praise for the administrator, darby, others on his team that have done an outstanding job post the summer of 2016 setting up that kind of regular communication and coordination. now, i will say some of the issues we talked about, some of the ideas, we have been talking to them about them for years. so the coordination, though, is

very good. ms. reiter: i would say the same thing like sharon. they communicate often if not daily with the t.s.a. and it has been some of them for a long time in discussion, particularly precheck. mr. mccormick: i would say the same. the interaction is terrific. again, we get buy-in from the top-down. some of the areas we have to accelerate. particularly the marketing of the programs to the corporations. as mentioned in your testimony but there's a huge opportunity with the corporations community, these are people who are already vetted. the corporation knows more about the travelers than t.s.a. even needs to to have them qualify for precheck but the agency is maybe not the best at driving those programs which is why we need the third-party enrollment, why we need to really aggressively go after the opportunities that are there in front of us. mr. katko: ok. i commend t.s.a. for making

yourselves available and doing the things you're doing to interact with the stakeholders. it's not an easy job you have but i commend you for interacting with them. it's clear since my time as chair things have gotten a lot better at t.s.a. a lot is because you're listening and that's a good thing. i commend you for that. also, looking at 2016 as a good example of that. there was a crisis in travel times. we learned field service directors may not be interacting with the airlines as they should. they fixed that. they learned to open their gates a little bit sooner. they fixed that they learned to anticipate flows better. they fixed that. all those things are happening. keep going because i think they're making a difference. but i want to still talk more, a little bit more about precheck. it's really surprising to me, more airports don't have kiosks at the airports. it seems like a basic, simple thing to do. you saw what happened in my airport. you heard my statements earlier

what's happened there with enrollments. it's gone through the roof. why can't airports do it, what would the impediment doing it? any suggestions? ms. reiter. yes. ms. reiter: there are quite a bit of restrictions that are put on the one company and what they need for infrastructure that is really difficult for the company to do as well as some of the airports to get them the infrastructure that they need so it's difficult for them to come into the airports. mr. katko: when you say restrictions who are causing restrictions, the airports? ms. reiter: it's what t.s.a. requires of the company to have to -- mr. katko: can you give examples? ms. reiter: how thick of walls they need. what kind of infrastructure they need. what kind of i.t. requirements they need. it's extremely difficult for them to get in. mr. katko: do you have it at your airport? ms. reiter: do i. mr. katko: how's it working?

ms. reiter: it's working great. it's working fine. we have increased precheck because of that. mr. katko: perhaps we could have a discussion with t.s.a., with the administrator, how how to treat the process and expedite. we need to get them through airports. i haven't heard them say it's not good. how do we expand it to other airports? how do we incentivize other airports to get there? we can maybe straighten out these other things. is it reluctance at airports about space? what is it? >> i don't think there's a reluctance. i would make a pitch for mobile enrollment. everybody is using their mobile. it wouldn't require heavy infrastructure investment. ms. pinkerton: again, i hear t.s.a. talking about it. we need to get it done. mr. katko: ok. anything else, ms. howerton. ms. howerton: i can concur with both of those requirements. >> there are other airports that have put it in there credential centers that have the staff and are willing to do

it as a third party that's been out there for years. there's other opportunities. mr. katko: yeah. it seems to me the key to anticipating, like mr. mccormick said, the increase in traffic, the 30% air travel in the next decade, we have to be ready for it. if we don't have precheck and ways to exploit the screening processes, we are going to be in trouble. canines are a good way to do it. that's definitely the way to do it but not a foolproof way. it's not the best way if you don't know the traveler. if you know the traveler, precheck is the best way, i think. we have to really push that. we should spend more time. if there's any other ideas you have about precheck, i definitely want to hear from you because to me it's one of the keys. if we can get to that 25 million, i think we're going to have a dramatically different landscape at airports. it really troubles me why you have one-hour waits. i know you are a popular airport, one of the most popular in the country. is there something we're

missing as to why those wait times are being caused? ms. reiter: i think the use of dogs, how long they can be used that probably should be discussed as well down the line. i think there's also some discussion about the attrition rate at our airports. we are one of the airports that the attrition rate is extremely high. and thank goodness t.s.a. is working with us on that. we have great collaboration with them. so thank you to mr. lajoye. they are working from top down on that. we're struggling with that as well. and just -- we are really a peak airport, but we're really struggling between canines and attrition. it's tough. mr. katko: all right. thank you very much. just keep your input coming. obviously one of the reasons we had this hearing today is because i heard from you about the concerns about wait times. we got to -- i think we really need to put our heads together, t.s.a. and all of us in the

industry to figure out how to best way to market this. you gave good ideas. we will go back and talk about them. i'm always willing to legislate. let's see what we can do here. with that i recognize mrs. watson coleman for five minutes of questions. mrs. watson coleman: thank you, mr. chairman. i'm certain you heard a little bit of my testimony -- my opening statement as it relates to what's happening with international travel and i'd like to pursue that. particularly with mr. mccormick and ms. howerton. visits pest inbound came the president's first two travel bans. there's also been a sharp decline in tourists coming from mexico, which may have speculated a direct consequence of the president's plan to build a wall along the southern border. i have a series of questions in support of this premise. first question is, what message

do you believe the president's policies and rhetoric are sending to the international visitors, ms. howerton and mr. mccormick, if any? mr. mccormick: so last year when the second executive order was put out in march, we pulled a european membership and 38% of business travel professionals said their companies would be less willing to send business travelers to the u.s. 45% said they had eab less willing to plan future meetings and events in the u.s. mrs. watson coleman: can you translate into money? mr. mccormick: yeah. the impact there, we were estimating last year the impact could have $1.3 billion impact on travel expenditures and related expenditures here in the u.s. and the problem is that when u're talking about particularly group travel it is planned one to two years out. we won't see the impact until now and next year. the rhetoric is difficult,

right, because just factually it has an impact on the perception of doing business. in a global economy, again, companies have options. they don't have to come here for that type of travel. they can go anywhere else. so that does create a problem for us as an industry. mrs. watson coleman: thank you. ms. howerton, do you have anything to add to the trump question? ms. howerton: yes. the u.s. market share and international travel has been sliding since 2015 so it's not new to this administration. that being said, the fact there is not a welcoming message and what we're hearing through all of the other issues for international visitation, it's hurtful to continuing an incline in international travel. we do need the president's help. it's pretty clear. robust travel is both compatible with his priorities for strong security and it's critical to the priority to grow jobs.

an e're hopeful we will see increase once we get some more movement under foot for positive messaging. mrs. watson coleman: so do you think we're -- well, ok. so you believe this is related to some positive messaging? has your industry been able to do anything to sort of express is concern to the parties or party, principally responsible for the depression of international travel because of the rhetoric? have you all like sought meetings with those entities or individuals who would -- who are responsible for this? ms. howerton: we actually are a member of the u.s. travel coalition, visit u.s. travel coalition and it's a coalition of many members.

both members within the u.s. travel footprint of membership and organizations that are outside of it. the primary purpose of this organization is to work with the administration on ways we can increase international travel, ways we can message it, ways we can impact international visitors coming here and the jobs that international travel creates. mrs. watson coleman: so have you specifically been able to communicate to anybody in the administration representing the interests of this president or even the president himself, the concerns that have been raised negative toric, the rhetoric and how it has impacted, possibly, people coming from mexico and people coming from other places around the world? have you, to your knowledge, ms. howerton, or to your knowledge, ms. mccormick? ms. howerton: we have had meetings with administration officials, yes, we have. mrs. watson coleman: have they recognized the possibility of this being a problem and seeking to, of course,

correction here, as if anybody has any control over the president's mouth? ms. howerton: they had listened intently. mrs. watson coleman: mr. mccormick, do you have anything to share? mr. mccormick: no, i think on that front, again, we've also met with the administration and anyone that will meet and listen because the importance of this issue. it is -- you know, it's critical. this business travel drives the economy. i think there's an understanding that -- but i think, again, we have a lot more work to do to have that fully embraced in a way that effects the way work is done. mrs. watson coleman: well, i have several more questions. i will close with this question. mr. katko: ok. mrs. watson coleman: like, i know this is going to -- this is impacting jobs, impacting spending, impacting our economy negatively. what is it you think congress can do to help to counteract the trump slump's impact on incoming international travel? i'd be interested in knowing. and with the answer to that

question, ms. howerton, mr. mccormick, anybody else that's at the witness table like to respond to that, i would yield back after that? mr. mccormick: well, i would say i think you're doing it. this is a perfect example of very good bipartisan efforts to address the issues that are affecting travel and to give us the forum to deliver the message. i think we could do more together. i think to have those meetings and to impress upon everybody about this importance. again, we're all on the same side on this issue. this is something that i don't think there's anything we're saying here that you would have an argument against. the tactics are the issue, right, and enforcement is the issue. mrs. watson coleman: you know -- last comment? mr. katko: that's fine. mrs. watson coleman: while we're focusing now on international travel coming to, there's also a question about whether or not we as americans, businesses, whatever, are reluctant to go to do international travel because

for fear we're not liked anymore as a result of this kind of rhetoric. and so that affects the industry in terms of hotels and things of that nature, and i think that something this whole area is something we need to explore a little bit close -- more closely in the upcoming future. mr. mccormick: well, again, we'd welcome the dialogue. because companies have bigger obligation in terms of duty of care and risk management. we're sending travelers now all over the world to destinations to do business, to grow business. companies, every company is global these days. every company has businesses looking for new business anywhere in the world. we do have an obligation. we have an obligation as a country, right, to address the issues and give companies that are driving our economy. rs. watson coleman: alour ally base continues to be shrinking, we need to protect our

opportunities internationally. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. mr. katko: thank you, mrs. watson coleman. i thank all of you for your testimony here today. it's been very helpful and very thought provoking. my poor staff will get tortured with a lot of assignments for that. do i understand and i appreciate the problem and i appreciate the much better interaction with the industry than there has been. i commend all of you at t.s.a. the more we hear from you, the more we know what to do. i thank you for that very much. and before i wrap up, i just want to let you know that we have the precheck bill coming and that will be coming in the next week or so. ok. week or so. [laughter] mr. katko: those are my bosses back here. we will be getting them out. it's not to torture t.s.a. but just to make it clear precheck means precheck. there are things we can do to help exploit the program. i think the merger of the two systems is a good idea.

>> as this hearing wraps we will let you know the entire hearing. we didn't get to show all of it to you this morning. the entire hearing will reair 10:00 on c-span2. right now on c-span we will take you to the house floor as they continue debate on the farm bill, a new set of amendments coming up. rule debate on that first. live coverage on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] chaplain, mon john zenz, holy name parish, birmingham, michigan. monsignor zenz: be true to your keep us true to your gift of life. you manifest your power by mercy and compassion. may we be true to you as stewards of your power