>> congress returns for legislative work next week. the senate is back on monday to consider biden administration nominees, including andrea palm to be deputy health and human services secretary. later, senators may consider a bill aimed at human rights issues, trade and technology competition with china. the houses back on tuesday beginning with the swearingen of representative elect troy carter. he replaces cedric richmond. mr. carter one on april 24 special election for the new orleans-based house eat. later in the week, work on a bill to protect consumers from certain debt collection practices. watch live coverage on c-span. see the senate on c-span two, and you can watch online at

c-span.org. or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> c-span's "washington journal." every day, we take your calls live on the air about the news of the day, and we discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday, the cost of prescription drugs in the u.s. compared to the rest of the world with john dicken of the government accountability office. then we look at the latest in the fight against coronavirus in the u.s. and globally with a director from the johns hopkins school of public health, and purdue university president mitch daniels on the new civics literacy requirement for its undergraduates and challenges facing higher education overall. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, text messages, and tweets.

♪ ♪ >> today, the acting transportation security administration head testified on his agency's budget and operations before the house appropriations subcommittee on homeland security. he talked about airport screening technology and tsa workforce training. >> during today's hearing,

members are responsible for muting themselves. when you are recognized to speak, if i've noticed you have not muted yourself, i will ask you if you would like staff to unmute you. if you indicate approval, staff will unmute your microphone. the staff designated by the chair may remove microphone access when they are not recognized to speak. if there is a technology issue, we will new to the next member until the issue is resolved. we will be following the five minute rule with one minute remaining in your time. the color on your screen will turn yellow. we will follow the speaking order set forth in the house rules beginning with the chair and ranking member, followed by members present at the time the hearing is called to order, in

order of seniority, and we will alternate by party. next we will go to members who were not present when the hearing was called to order until every member present has had a first-round. as a reminder, members can submit information in writing through the email address provided in advance to your staff for that purpose. let's begin. i welcome the senior official performing the duties of the administrator who is here to discuss tsa's operations both during the pandemic and as we look forward to moving past it. members of the public likely interact with tsa and its employees more than any other component of the department of homeland security or any other federal department or agency. this interaction has become more

challenging during the pandemic. while air travelers may not express their gratitude during the passenger screening process, what tsa and its employees do to protect our nation is greatly appreciated. tsa personnel work on the front lines at great personal risk to ensure the safety of air travel. tsa personnel have passed away after contracting covid-19 while performing their duties. i extend my condolences to the families and colleagues of those who have lost their lives. i also reaffirm our continued support and appreciation for your workforce. we look forward to your candid and comprehensive assessment of how covid has impacted tsa's mission and what challenges you foresee for the agency as air travel hopefully begins to

return to a more normal pattern. we also want to hear details on the deployment of advanced security technology, workforce pay initiatives, and how you are executing your fiscal year 2021 funding. i know you are limited in sharing details about tsa budget requests for the coming year, but i hope we can have a fulsome conversation about your priorities. i would now like to turn to the distinguished gentleman from tennessee, ranking member wiseman, for his opening remarks. >> thank you, madam chairwoman. thank you for coming to testify before the homeland security subcommittee today to discuss covid implications on tsa's budget and operations. i know you've been busy stepping in over the last few months, and

i would like to start by saying thank you for all you have done and all you are doing. you are doing an admiral job. speaking of, i know i mentioned this during our recent discussion, but i just want to say for the record how great the officers have been in the chattanooga airport. i take pride in being the ranking member of this subcommittee, so i enjoy seeing firsthand the great work the men and women in chattanooga are doing and in airports across the country who work valiantly to protect our nations travelers. let me pass my condolences on to the family of a tsa agents who passed away last week while performing his duties in the chattanooga airport. tsa employees are some of the only dhs employees that americans come face-to-face with on a regular basis, and they

have represented you and the department well during these difficult times, maintaining a steadfast approach to keep this country safe despite the challenges that this pandemic has thrust upon them. they have done so knowing full well the risks that the coronavirus presents. please pass on my thanks to your workforce, and my heartfelt condolences to the families of the 16 employees who have tragically died from contracting covid-19 while bravely protecting this nation. despite the pandemic, i am pleased with the efforts tsa took to protect both its frontline workforce and the traveling public through the expansion of ppe use, protective barriers, and regular planning.

i am excited to see both of these programs work to improve the security environment. i look forward to today's discussion on how we can better support tsa through covid and beyond. >> thank you. i will submit the full text of your official statement for the hearing record. please begin your oral summary, which i would ask to keep to five minutes. >> go morning chairwoman, ranking member, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. i am honored to appear before you to discuss tsa's response to the covid-19 pandemic, share

highlights from fiscal 21, and provide a glimpse of the president's fy 22 discretionary requests. the tsa has faced tremendous challenges from the ongoing global pandemic. air travel came to a near standstill, and our operational agility, the resilience of the workforce, and the strength of our partnerships were tested like never before. i'm incredibly proud of the way we adapted to the challenges and positioned our agency for the future. even for the darkest times of the pandemic, we never wavered from our commitment to protecting the transportation system and ensuring the movement of people and commerce. tsa placed the highest priority on the health and safety of our employees and that of the traveling public. we moved quickly to implement security measures at security checkpoints across the country, thanks in part to your generous

support in past fiscal years and from the cares act, we enforced social distancing at our checkpoints, installed plastic shielding to minimize contact, increase sanitize asian, and required officers to wear face masks, gloves, or face shields. our workforce also took direct and meaningful actions to supplement the worldwide pandemic response. we helped to repatriate 100,000 american citizens stranded across the globe and distributed ppe and other critical supplies. our partners contributed to our response efforts. we worked closely with industry and government colleagues on plans to mitigate the risks of covid-19 and received great support from stakeholders as we implemented orders for travelers to wear face masks across all transportation systems.

the health and safety of the tsa workforce was always top of mind. we used our personnel flexibility to offer leave options for employees at risk of severe illness from exposure to the virus and maximize telework and flexible scheduling options. we are at the forefront in providing accelerated vaccine access to dhs. while we've had many successes, we've gone through a great national trauma and all experienced heartbreaking losses. thousands of tsa employees contracted covid-19, and 16 employees passed away from the effects of the virus. my most sincere condolences go to their families and friends and peers for the loss. before i continue, i want to take a moment to think our

workforce, our officers, canine teams, inspectors, aviation personnel, and our vetting staff , as well as our representatives at embassies around the world and every single support personnel who stood behind them. i am proud of their continued resilience and professionalism. i also want to thank the subcommittee and congress for your support year after year. $144.2 million above the previous year. we are putting the funds to good use and they are helping us to expand our priorities. these technologies are critical because they enhance our detection capabilities at the checkpoint and provide a touchless screening process. i am pleased to announce we've

deployed over 300 systems at 142 locations. tsa has deployed 1053 cap units at 121 locations to date. we believe it is a game changing technology that provides a secure, touchless, and seamless customer experience, and we are working to ensure that every federalized airport, from largest to smallest, will receive it soon. currently, we are evaluating biometric technology and monitoring evolution of mobile drivers licenses and digital passports and how you might

accept them in an airport environment. i am honored to serve with our dedicated workforce and remain committed to supporting them and investing in their success. tsa remains committed to fostering a fair and equitable workplace and promoting diversity and inclusion at all levels. we are at our best when our employees feel valued and are engaged to achieve our mission. we've taken the investment in our workforce to another level with incentives like service pay, career progression, and the model officer recognition program. in addition to investing in our workforce, we are using fiscal 21 funds to recruit and hire talented transportation security officers in your home states and districts. focus on outreach will help us to fulfill these roles.

filling these jobs is a priority as travel volume continues to climb. before i close, i want to address reports you may have seen about increases in firearms at checkpoints nationwide. even with a substantial decrease in volume in 2020, officers detected twice as many firearms per million passengers than in 2019, and the vast majority of these weapons were fully loaded. we are working to address this increase through training, regulatory enforcement, and helping to educate the public on how to properly travel with a firearm. it provides 52 billion dollars for dhs, approximately equal to the fiscal 21 level. to continue to protect the american people. the request further supports work in key areas like research,

innovation, and transportation security technology. i look forward to further discussions with you on fiscal 22 after the president transmits the budget to congress. tsa continues to be a global leader in security and continues to adapt to ever evolving challenges. as we emerge from the covid-19 pandemic and approach the 20th anniversary of september 11, tsa stands firm in our resolve to protect the nation's transportation systems. chairwoman, ranking member, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you. mr. lajoye, airport passenger volume is 50% of 2019 levels, but is 10 times greater than it was at this time last year. the steady increase is projected through the summer.

we've heard concerns about whether tsa will have sufficient staffing due to this increased volume, as well as onboarding challenges as a result of a hiring freeze. this has raised questions about tsa's readiness to support the commercial air transportation system without modifying passenger screening protocol and compromising public safety. does tsa have sufficient staffing as passenger volume continues to increase, and how will you ensure no modification of procedures or threat detection capabilities. >> thank you, madam chair. what i want to say to the subcommittee is throughout this pandemic, never once did we sacrifice security or changes to our procedures. that was something we established early on. we were not going to sacrifice our security mission, and we

won't as summer volume increases. we've been faced with many of the same challenges that many companies face in trying to attract talent. for a number of months, we were challenged to bring people into large rooms to do assessments. i am happy to report that in the last 120 days since january, we have hired approximately 2500 officers, and we anticipate over the next eight weeks, hiring another 1600 more. if you compare that to a staffing level to volume, we are about where we were in 2019. one of the things we've realized during this pandemic is once we hit that high watermark, we don't recede much. we are going to be extending our hiring through the summer. as you pointed out, we expect volume to continue to increase

even as we get out of the summer. we will make sure we continue to hire through the summer so we are prepared for the next holiday season and into next summer, as well. >> can you talk about in your opening statement, the steps that were taken to protect your workforce and the traveling public from covid-19? how will those efforts change over the coming months as both the number of passengers and vaccination levels increase, while at the same time we know not every passenger will have been vaccinated? >> madam chair, one of the things from the beginning, we follow the science and listen to our chief medical officer. we put in place the measures that were advised from the cdc. very early on, even before we

had dedicated ppe supply lines, we made it a voluntary for our employees to wear masks, and once we had dedicated supplies, it became a requirement. it became a requirement that they wore i protection to include face shields if they were not standing behind the plexiglass shielding. that remains the requirement today. i am happy to report that as i am sitting here, 60% of tsa employees have received their first shot, and 40% have been fully vaccinated. the priority of the department has placed on vaccinating our workforce, it has been a game changer from where we were several months ago. we continue to emphasize the importance to our workforce, and

i am confident that any tsa employee who desires to get the vaccine has the ability to do so. >> one last question before my time is up. as new technology and protocol air implemented to prevent the spread of covid-19, what changes to passenger screening should travelers expect? >> some of these, we have already announced. passengers are going to be able to hold larger quantities of hand sanitizer at the checkpoint. we think it is the best thing from a public health perspective, and it in no way results in a security concern from our perspective. also, using cat technology is a key piece of technology. it does promote a more touchless environment. you can take your own mobile device and place it on top of the machine.

they are going to have much less contact with tsa employees, and as we begin to deploy tomography and cat, passengers are going to realize a much more seamless, touchless travel experience as they enter our checkpoints. they are going to encounter tsa officers wearing a surgical mask. they are going to encounter a checkpoint where there may be various locations where they are standing behind plexiglass, but our airport partners did a fantastic job at helping to promote social distancing to the extent we can. it's important for passengers as we get closer to summer to go to tsa.gov and check with their airline. many people have not been challenging -- traveling. they may experience some differences in their travel experience, and as volume is

returning, we think passenger weight is going to return to pre-pandemic levels. -- wait time is going to return to pre-pandemic levels. >> thank you, madam chair, for those questions. those were my first group of questions. i am reading from a screen. last week, it was announced that the tsa is extending the mask requirements for travelers across all transportation networks. can you explain the factors that went into deciding on this extension and why this date was chosen, and as a follow-up, what challenges have been encountered in the enforcement of this

mandate? what actions has tsa taken as a result? >> thank you for the question. since january of the past year and keeping with president biden's executive order on protecting the traveling public, we did mandate a requirement for surgical masks. as we've been approaching that deadline, the recommendations remain that to best protect the traveling public, the use and requirement of surgical masks continues to be recommended. that is a decision that went into extending the mandate. some of the challenges we've had, we've had about 2000 total incidents involving noncompliance of a mask. about 90%, it's happening on board the aircraft.

most of these we are pursuing enforcement actions in the form of a warning order. we remind passengers, there have been arrests that have been made , and we've had some agree just cases. it remains a challenge for us. we've had outstanding partnerships across aviation and helping to enforce this mandate. we work closely with the faa as well as cdc to make sure as we continue, keeping up with any updated guidance from the cdc, the message for the traveling public is, please adhere to the mask requirements. criminal penalties could include an arrest.

>> very well handled. i can't see my clock, madam chair. how much time do i have left? >> you still have two minutes and 17 seconds. >> thank you. this is the second extension on the enforcement of this requirement. first, october of 2020 two october of 2021, and an additional 19 months until may of 2022. can you explain the reasoning for a further extension and status of this program to include the potential for additional extensions, sir? >> i thought it was an acknowledgment that the country

is going through so much with covid-19 that for much of this year, dmv offices were closed. we wanted to make sure the state could focus on their recovery efforts. we worked closely across the industry and made recommendations to the secretary. we do think we can allow the state to focus on reopening their dmv's. really give the traveling public an opportunity to go out there and get real id compliant drivers licenses. about 40% of the traveling public has compliant real id. we need that number to get close to 90% without affecting impact. for travelers, to get the opportunity to get that real id

compliant id card. >> in closing, i want to think you and your personnel. it's been a pleasure working with you, and i appreciate you stepping up at this time. i will yield back. >> mr. cuellar. >> thank you, madam chair and ranking member. let me first of all joined the chairwoman in thinking you for the service that y'all do. we all fly from somewhere. i fly from texas, and you've got a great set of men and women working there. you've got another great set of folks working there. i want to think the professionalism that your folks gave the traveling public. one has to do on the border -- we have what homeland calls non-essential, which are

mexicans. i am right at the border. if you want to cross through a land bridge, you are not allowed in. over $19 billion have been spent in the past, but if you are a rich mexican and you want to fly, you can fly to houston. isn't that correct on what y'all do if you have somebody from mexico coming in, flying in? you check their covid test, and they are able to walk in. >> i'd have to get with cbp on what the protocols are at the land crossing. i am not as familiar with what cbp processes are. my question is, at the airport

-- at the airports, don't you allow mexicans to come in with a negative covid test? >> we at tsa would not be doing those checks when they arrive from mexico. i will commit to getting back something specific on the record. >> the other question that i in the past, as you all are doing the automation, there is a lot of equipment that you upgrade. in the past, some of that equipment, we have suggested to some of your past tsa administrators. can you use some of that surplus

and provide them as surplus equipment under the law to maybe local jails, local facilities, may be other countries that might not have the equipment -- the problem is that you have those long maintenance contracts that a lot of the surplus was not able to be used, because the maintenance contracts. therefore, you in the past or your agency in the past has stayed with the equipment and just playing a lot of money to store the equipment and still pay on the maintenance. could you provide the committee any equipment you may have an surplus, and what you are paying for storage, what you are paying on any past maintenance on

equipment. i want to see, what are we doing with all of the equipment that might be an surplus? >> absolutely. i will get all of the information that you ask for, we will give you a full briefing on anything we currently have an surplus. we do not typically have much in the way of property type technology. most of our commitment is fully the floyd at the airports -- fully deployed at the airports. but as we continue to deploy ct, that will free up surplus equipment. we have had full conversations with the state department because there may be opportunities for us in our capacity development efforts to work across interagency for how we could in fact to donate

equipment, especially to much of the developing world. i will get back a full briefing on what we have and what we may be able to develop in the future. >> that i think the committee would appreciate because anything that we can donate to the country, that would be good for them, but i think it would be good for us also. thank you. you have a lot of good people working and we see them every week when we fly in. thank you, madam chair. thank you, mr. lajoyce. >> thank you madam chair. i just want to echo what you have heard from the other members here, particularly. i fly from jacksonville international airport regularly and the men and women that you

all have are doing a fantastic job, and i am going to join the chairwoman and expressing our condolences to all of those members who you have lost and their families. if you would let them know, we grieve with them. we thank them for their duty, and we thank them for their sacrifice. i want to get to something that was a little before your time, i don't know about before your time with the tsa, but before your time with the tsa -- right after 9/11 [laughter] i cannot believe we are still this many years after 9/11 still reimbursing those agencies for

those airports for those capital investments. can you give me an idea, how much is being directed towards the reimbursement this year, and i think we should be able to wipe that out for the remaining airports that have not been completely reimbursed. mr. lajoyce: i can speak generally to the issue. does very airport by airport -- it does vary airport by airport. the cap has never changed and the buying power is not the same as it was on was initially authorized. a lot of the airports have

sustained it to substantial upgrades to their entire baggage system, very different from what existed 20 years ago. it depends on the nature of the project that the airports are pursuing. big airports and small airports, so we can get back with full briefing specifically what that funding is airport by airport. rep. rutherford: you make a great point. it is now time to regenerate that equipment in the many locations i know. let me ask this on the cap, too. i think you said there was some talk about generalizing, can you expand a little bit about how that will help us with no touch processes -- what is the rollout

on that? mr. lajoyce: a great question and certainly would invite you and any of your colleagues over to reagan national where we have this prototype. we did test cat ii at dca at the end of 2020. we are doing field tests, and really what it is, is the next level of credential authentication technology. it incorporates plexiglass shielding, so it anticipates the continued need to have that shielding effect from the covid-19, and it also incorporates a camera, so it is matching in real time your image to the image in id. it is the next evolution not only in security but in touchless travel. rep. rutherford: i had an opportunity to look at that and

it was quite impressive. congratulations on that. also, if i could ask, are we looking at that on an international point of departure, or are we generalizing that abroad? mr. lajoyce: overseas, it has been a while since i have been overseas and i have been able to trial, but the use of cameras is fairly commonplace. it may be a little different than what we are intending here, but generally speaking, the entire world is realizing that we need to promote technology that get that more seamless, more touchless travel. whether it is international within a country, or certainly between countries. rep. rutherford: madam chair, i

see my time has run out. thank you, mr. lajoye. i yield back. rep. price: administrator, thank you for your testimony and your service. we appreciate you appearing before us today. you are well acquainted, of course, we all are with evidence that the rise of white supremacy and domestic extremism are the major terrorist threats that our country now faces. of course, that was underscored by the attempted insurrection on january 6, the storming of the capitol. you are probably aware that after that event occurred, the

head of the association of flight attendants, sarah nelson, called for suspected perpetrators to be barred from flying, citing that they posed a threat to the security of those on board. i know that i and others have heard anecdotal reports from colleagues about what it was like, how frightening it was to be on flights with those perpetrators in the ensuing days. many were flying back to their districts at the same time that the insurgents were flying, and in many cases, menacing and pretty serious questions whether those people should have been on board an aircraft. considering this, the present threat of the mystic violent extremism, what is your assessment of where we are now, the adequacy of the lists you are working with, are you satisfied that we are borrowing from flights those who should be barred from flights?

do you have any figures about whom you are denying boarding to and the kind of communication you are having with your intelligence counterparts to ensure safety for all who pastor your custody? mr. lajoye: like you, following the attack on the capitol, i was horrified by what i saw, and certainly was concerned for several days and weeks with some of the threats that i know you and your colleagues were facing. we did take immediate steps under tsa, we were posted with the fbi and all of our vetting authorities, and we took immediate steps to ensure that no point was the threat of an aircraft, was no point that anybody that took place with the attack on the capitol going to be a threat on an aircraft, and

again, we worked very close with the fbi, and we had all of the authorities information that we need to ensure that we can provide for the protection of the aircraft. keeping with what you alluded to was some of the threats against members of congress, we immediately placed over in capitol, because we want to know when numbers are traveling. we want to place a measure of security both in the airport and aboard those flights, so we will keep that person in place over at the capitol police headquarters, but it was important for us to know when numbers were flying. we also substantially increased the number of law enforcement present at counter checkpoints. we used our federal air marshals and uniform and we deploy them in a number of locations throughout the country to include the three airports here and in the national capitol region.

i would certainly be willing to provide a more specific briefing if there is any specific information, i am prepared to do that in a different setting. rep. price: i did hear informal reports about the immediate beefed up present -- presence at the checkpoint and especially in d.c. airports. i know that is true, and it probably would be good at some point to have a more formal accounting of that response and then going forward, that is what i am really asking, are you satisfied going forward that the processes in place to identify these people who are quite willing, obviously to be violent, to do harm, quite willing, are you satisfied the processes in place to identify such people and bar them from flying? mr. lajoye: this remains a

priority for the department and we work very closely within the department to include our intelligence officials, to include the fbi. i am very confident that there are adequate processes in place to help protect the transportation system. very close partnerships we have had at the highest level of the agencies to ensure that existing partnerships exist, daily interactions with in the intelligence community to ensure the safety of the traveling public, so i am very confident in those processes. rep. price: thank you, madam chair. rep. henson: thank you, madam chair, and thank you mr. lajoye four appearing before us today. i enjoyed your testimony already. today for the purpose of this

hearing and my questions, i would like to focus on the latter because we are beginning our work on the budget. you talk about the long-standing workforce challenges that the agency, and i also wanted to follow-up on the conversation you had with our chairwoman asking about challenges for the agency as well. i would start by asking, how can congress and members of this committee better support job opportunities within tsa for young people just entering the skilled workforce right now? mr. lajoye: thank you for that question, and we have had tremendous support. a lot of what we focused on, we were challenged did stay competitive in a number of cities before this pandemic and the average starting salary for a gso is between $16 and with the dollars an hour. our authority was to extend hiring incentives, and we work closely with the number of your colleagues staff to make sure that we have the opportunities

to get the word out to come work for tsa, please help in that effort. we have had tremendous success going back several months and that is robust public campaign to attract people to come work for tsa. we do pay full-time health care benefits are part-time employees, we offer tuition reimbursement, so it is really about communicating all the different incentives that exist for those who come work for tsa. the support that we have gotten from this committee on some of the tso pay incentives are key for us. just last week because of the support we got from the committee, we are able to give almost $32,000 -- 32,000 tsa employees a pay raise and that is because of the funding we got from service pay. we have model officer program where every quarter, recognizing with bonuses and pay raises, the very best that tsa has to offer.

these are all these programs that we had and we would love to be able to work with you and your community and the staff to make sure that we are finding opportunities to communicate that to the traveling public. rep. hinson: that is definitely good to know that you are focused on merit and rewarding those that are working hard, and trying to keep them engaged in a long-term member of the workforce with those incentives. the other message i would like to focus on is human trafficking concerns. last year, the tsa combined with the department of homeland security prioritized combating human trafficking between the four p's, and according to the website, tsa conducted a survey that revealed that human trafficking happens in all modes of transportation. my question today is with what is happening at the border right now, human trafficking into and through the united states with a presence of 35 and interstate 35

in iowa, a growing concern for me but people are obviously getting on planes as well. has your agency made any plans to ramp up officer training to help deal with these concerns? mr. lajoye: yes ma'am. the very first meeting i had with secretary mayorkas, this is something he highlighted as one of his priorities. we do have required training for all tsa employees. we help provide that trading -- training to stakeholders. we also have plates tsa law enforcement and the number of key taskforces, and a number of cases, i can give you specifics -- a last-minute request on itineraries for anyone we thought maybe engaging in human trafficking, so having someone on the law enforcement task force is key to helping investigate and prosecuting those who would practice human trafficking.

rep. hinson: i would appreciate some additional follow-up on that and what your findings are as coming across these incidents of potential human trafficking. my last question, what resources do you want congress to know? mr. lajoye: what i look forward to being able to speak specifics once the budget has been transferred to the congress. anything we can do by way of training is very important. there are 2 million and as we continue to recover, 2.5 million people who traveled through our checkpoints, so our officers having the adequate training to be able to spot incidents of human trafficking, especially in close partnership, we think it is key. so your continued support for training and the support we give to local leaders will be important continuing forward. rep. hinson: thank you for your

testimony today, and thank you madam chair, and i yield back. rep. quigley: thank you. i remember when the pandemic first hit and when we first got to d.c., people thought we were courageous forgetting on planes, but it is nothing with your folks with thousands of people at a time, so i commend their efforts and i appreciate it. if you could give us a l'amour deep dive on the technology issues. i am hearing about ultraviolet lights being used on part of the process. i have heard of 3d screening that is being highlighted -- piloted in new york. can you give us more information? mr. lajoye: absolutely. do your first point, throughout the pandemic and this has been

an opportunity for us to work with a number of small businesses, we are testing and fielding, and we have a number of key initiatives to get to the best ideas that may be out there to help revolutionize what is needed in a checkpoint sanitization. we do have a couple of locations around the country where we looked at a prototype effectively for a machine that runs a bin through it with ultraviolet lights to help sanitize. on the 3d, that is getting at the computer demography. we have ct machines that have been deployed around the country at the end of fiscal 2021, and what that allows our officers to do is all in the machine, on a screen, they can

rotate the image, they can effectively conduct a baggage search on the screen without the need for the passage of the pull things out of their bag. so the ct machines it -- is the key technology for us not only from a security perspective, we are convinced that this is the best tools we can give our officers, but also going to be important in a post pandemic. fewer bad checks, fewer items being pulled out of bags is an effort to help promote touchless and seamless travel. the 3d stuff is the ct technology. rep. quigley: and the process of purchasing, if you have enough resources, is there anything else that could expedite that process of incorporating it? mr. lajoye: all of those things

are factors we have to consider. we have 300, and we are about 99.7% deployed on the initial 300. we anticipate by the end of this fiscal year, another 232 more being deployed around the country. that is about 25%. we have about 440 airports, and all of that is the ability of vendors to make the machines, testing them, and ramping up the training. we think we have made a lot of progress with the support from the committee, so by the end of this year, some 542 of those machines will have been procured. rep. quigley: are you aware at all at their use at the world's busiest airport which is happens to be in my district, o'hara?

mr. lajoye: i am. o'hara is one of the airports that has them. i believe we have seven deployed, and they have had them for a while. i spoke with the officers there. they love the technology and the passengers appreciate fewer things having to come out of bags, so we think this is key technology for us. rep. quigley: for me, i believe the members, obviously may not always be aware of these possibilities, but as time goes on, what i want to know and what many want to know is if there is something else out there that not only provides additional security and/or protects the traveler and the tsa personnel, we want to hear about it, and it is the possibility of additional resources that are necessary, we want to know if it is an option. i appreciate your effort in moving forward on these particular choices. thank you, i yield back.

rep. aguilar: thanks so much. acting administrator, thank you for your testimony and like my colleagues, i want to express my thanks to tso's who continue to serve as essential workers during this pandemic and during this time. my condolences to those you have lost. if i get follow-up on mr. quigley's question about the new technology and the touchless screening, you talked about some of the pilot programs. what can the committee be looking for in the next two to three years in a post pandemic world as more travelers are coming back? you talked about the touchless technology in your testimony, what is this going to look like in the next few years and what should we prepare to see when it comes to funding those priorities? mr. lajoye: excellent question.

i think it is especially appropriate question as tsa approaches are 20th anniversary. following the attacks on september 11, checkpoints really were not designed with security in mind. we operated according to a mandate. federalized all of the airports and really find ways to shoehorn in technology to an existing footprint. we have learned a lot in 20 years, and that is informing what you will be seeing over the next couple of years. we already know the passengers will expect the screening experience to look different. they are going to expected to be different, and we think that programs like cat and cat ii will be key investments for us to put a dent in that. it will be a change in how people travel. cat ii is a camera, it is self

sort of service and it is a camera that in real time, comparing your image to the image that is embedded in your drivers license. you look at mobile drivers licenses, so many travel today with our boarding passes and our drivers licenses. we want to learn, how could we explore this to be real id compliant. we want to make sure that with mobile drivers licenses, from a cyber perspective, it is secure. from a safety perspective, it is safe in terms of privacy for individuals. and obviously, do we have as robust a process as we can to flag identit fraud -- identity fraud. you are going to see these things, you see them in airports today, and then how do you tie

all of those things together? the underlying infrastructure of an airport is really going to be key and all of this, because we think we are pretty close with this technology to achieve what we currently do to check baggage. rather than moving passengers from full lanes to open lanes, we can simply move images, so it is an efficient way for officers to help screen passengers. all of these things are being tested currently, so if i look to the next couple of years, continue priorities to ct, cat 2 2, i think the enhanced ait will be important for us which is the on person screening that would get rid of the need for passengers to raise their hands over their head.

rep. aguilar: i wanted to ask about retention and hiring and 2019, the aig issued recommendations to help you retain tso's including exit surveys for those leaving. could you share how that progress is coming and how the pandemic has affected your ability to implement the recommendations that the ig gave? mr. lajoye: thank you for the question, and we fully support the ig's recommendations. we have learned a lot by talking with our workforce, so when you look over the last four years, when you look at attrition over the last two years, we have seen improvement. 4% better during the pandemic that in 2019. if you look at the employment that employee engagement index which is a part of the federal employee viewpoint

survey, we have seen a 12 point improvement in last four years. and we talked to the workforce, what we typically hear is the importance of pay, which is really the appreciation to the committee for supporting a number of our tso pay and initiatives. to things like tso service pay. 32,000 employees in the past two weeks a pay raise. model officer, recognizes and rewards the very best of tso, and that they achieved advanced training and additional skills. all of those are important things that we hear from our workforce and we really think it's contributing to the positive impact that we are seeing in our results and also the positive impact in attrition. rep. aguilar: thank you. i am over my time, so i will put a quarter in the jar and yelled back. -- yield back.

chair: it is now $.50. rep. underwood: -- miss underwood? she may have had to get off. we may have time for a second. i would like to begin talking a little bit about the workforce and the fact that an administrator has talked in the past about the relatively low compensation which he believes is not commiserate with the responsibilities of the job and

contributes to retention challenges. legislation to address the problem has been reintroduced to the 117th congress with over 150 cosponsors. as you know, the bill that moves this workforce has a general schedule for pay and benefits. has tsa done or can it do an analysis on the cost associated with the gs pay system, and does moving to ags pay system alleviate some of the aforementioned challenges? mr. lajoye: thank you, madame chair. the secretary is committed to looking at this issue and we are working very closely with the department to understand what those implications would be and

what the pricing would be. we are aware of the bill that would propose moving tsa, and we are providing technical drafting assistants on that legislation. for us, there are couple of keys irrespective of whatever the personnel system that tsa operates under. it needs to ensure and strengthen due process rights for our workforce. it needs to strengthen and encourage collective bargaining. it needs to allow us to continue to perform our agile security missions. we are committed to working as well as the department, looking at what those costs would be. the cbo scored it several years ago as billions of dollars, but even the cbo knows there is room

to looking at that. there was acknowledgment that how the workforce was classified would determine what those changes and costs would be. but we are committed to working to make sure we understand the cost for any changes in tsa's personnel system. chair allard: i imagine that that would include an analysis of the cost savings while you have improved hiring and retention associated with any kind of improvement in efficiency. mr. lajoye: it would. rep. aguilar are there is -- chair allard: are there steps that you are considering to address the speed of pay, and with those decisions require legislation or can tsa administer them legislatively? mr. lajoye: the support we have gotten from this committee, with our authorities, service pay,

career progression, these are all key programs that we think are helping to address tso pay. these are important things for us. 32,000 employees last week and getting anywhere from my 1% to raise the pending on the length of service that they have in tsa, and career progression. it allows 4500's officers to get a pay raise. because of the support of the committee, we were able to find these activities, so it is important for us as we roll these programs out and i think to your question, what positive impact is that having on retention and recruitment efforts. chair allard: congress rejected requests by the previous administration for the law

enforcement officer reimbursement program known as leor. do you know if the proposed was any kind of analysis of cost-benefit, and in your opinion, do these programs provide value to tsa? mr. lajoye: these are very important programs for tsa. any past steps we have taken with respect to funding was in no way a level of the importance of reporting on the program. there is always going to be trade-offs with every budget. the reimbursement program is key for us. last week i was in san antonio and because of the actions of a brave police officer who was working overtime at the airport, he prevented the shooting down there from becoming an even greater tragedy.

i spoke previously about the importance of viper, and these really are key programs for tsa and i am confident that that has been communicated at the department as well as the administration that will be adequately reflected in future budgets. these are key programs for us, and i am confident that that requirement has been listened to and heard by the department. chair allard: mr. fleischman. rep. fleischman: thank you. this has been a substantial hearing. i want to address unmanned systems that is a disruption across the country. tsa began the establishment of a counter you af -- uaf testbed

for classifying uas operating in the vicinity of airports. the subcommittee appropriated additional $3 million to expand the program. can you describe the status of this testbed as well as the progress of the expansion efforts? mr. lajoye: absolutely. it is a great question. we are seeing a significant rise in the number of incidents involving a uas. here, we characterize it in two different ways. we get lots of reports daily about the siting of a uas. an incident is where the pilot of an aircraft has to take evasive action. we are seeing an increase in both of those. this is important for us to look at.

miami was the first testbed and justice this week, we announced that lax will be the second testbed. $3 million that the committee gave in fiscal 21, so it means miami will be up first and lax will be the second testbed for county you -- uaf activities. rep. fleischman: in fiscal 2020, tsa allocated over $500 billion to small businesses -- $500 million to small businesses. small businesses have taken more than their fair challenges throughout this pandemic. can you describe tsa's efforts with small business outreach in fiscal 21 and beyond, and how your procurement strategy has changed as a result. mr. lajoye: yes sir. as you noted, tsa for the first

time ever exceeded all of our goals, our five goals for small business, and it is $576 million that was rewarded to small businesses. i cannot underscore how important small businesses were to our response to covid-19. whether it was hand sanitizer, a variety of ppe, small businesses played a very key role in our ability deploying plastic shielding throughout the airports. we cannot underscore how important they were in helping protect our officers and the traveling public. we want to expand on that success, we are working closely within dhs, snt, we are working closely with venture capital firms to find ways to solicit support from small businesses. how can we put our requirements

out there to small businesses. broad agency announced it is really an opportunity for us to hear from small business, how can we develop their processes to meet the government's needs. we have a number of priorities where we will bite testing, we will abide demonstration units that we understand what they have to offer. all of these things are an effort to help grow and expand on the success that we have had last year in promoting small business. rep. fleischman: thank you's -- thank you, sir for your service. in the interest of time, i will yield back, and i thank you. chair allard: mr. price. rep. price: thank you. i would like to ask you to turn for a moment to tsa's responsibility for surface transportation. you referred to this a minute

ago, and i would like to ask you to elaborate. this includes freight and passenger rail, highway, and maritime systems. it is contract with the -- contrast with the air system in that these are more easily accessible, and they they are more exposed therefore to potential terrorist threats including less sophisticated attacks that involve fewer numbers of people, less planning, and so forth. unlike the aviation systems, surface transportation operators are themselves directly responsible for their own security, and tsa's role is one of offering assistance, advice, best practices, and so forth. you did have many initiatives that i and other subcommittee members supported over the years to help prepare and train.

to employees and operators to observe and respond to threats. this includes the viper program in collaboration with the inner-city bus security program. my question, last march, tsa issued a final rule to provide tsa approved to hire security training for certain employees, which has affected railroad, public transportation systems, and over the road buses and then came the pandemic. the changes many things. i wondered if you could update us about where this stands now. can you provide an update on the emblem and tatian of this new rule and are you able to share any information in with the subcommittee about how well the training is going and other activities that you have underway. mr. lajoye: thank you for the question and for highlighting the importance of surface transportation security and what we do.

the surface training rule like a lot of other things that tsa has done, it has been impacted by the pandemic. we found a number, we talk often about how much of an impact the pandemic has had on aviation workers. the impact has been just as severe and surface operators as well, so they were really challenged to emblem at the rules, so we worked closely to provide enough flexibility and extensions to help implement the rule. i think we are still making more progress on that and as we continue to come back from the pandemic, we are starting to see incremental progress against the surface training rule. i do not have any real concerns on the industry's ability to meet that requirement. it was impacted by this pandemic. generally speaking, and you also highlighted the real differences

in surface as opposed to aviation from a regulatory framework. it is more open and there is a much less rigid regulatory framework and place for surface, so we prioritize enhancing our cyber abilities, because we know a number of operators focused pretty extensively on industrial control systems, so our ability to provide expert cyber assessments for the inner cities we think it is really important and their mitigation strategies. being able to focus on regulatory enforcement. we have the new training role and we have certainly over the last four months focused on the mass requirements, so continuing to focus on a enforcement role. and lastly, we want to use existing tsa platforms to get better analytics. we have learned a lot, we want to get better analytics that we can help them better understand

where those trends, where we may be able to prioritize through our assessments that we can provide to some of these operators. rep. fleischman: thank you. that is a good overview as we prepare the transcript of today's hearing, and looked towards the budget. i think it would be helpful if you formalized this just a bit, whatever facts and figures you can provide us on the reach of the rule, the future plans, that would be helpful. this is not well-known and it is the first time today, for example, that is,. i think this role with respect to service transportation -- surface transportation, and these plans which admittedly were modified somewhat, but are back on track, it seems you are saying. anything you want to add with respect to that, i think we

would appreciate. mr. lajoye: yes sir, absolutely. chair allard: mr. rutherford. rep. rutherford: thank you. mr. lajoye, the tsa modernization act which passed about three years ago required tsa to deploy capabilities that allows travelers who enroll in the tsa pre-check, using mobile technologies, it is my understanding that one of the major hurdles that we run into in accomplishing that is the gathering of applicant's fingerprints which are necessary to run the background check. in order for tsa to deploy mobile enrollment technology, it is my understanding that tsa

first needs approval from the fbi to deploy biometric capture and technology that will enable travelers to then submit fingerprints to the tsa as a part of their application for the pre-check. can you talk a little bit about the timetable that the fbi is committed to and its discussions with tsa to accomplish this ability to register for pre-check through mobile devices and sending in your fingerprints? mr. lajoye: yes sir. it really is the ability for the fbi to be able to do it. we are working very closely on a process that would be certified and give the fbi the ability electronically, mobley to be able to capture the fingerprint, but you are right. -- mobilly to be able to

capture the fingerprint, but you are right. we want to make sure that it is an open, transparent, competitive process, all of which is designed to bring the price down and the number of tsa pre-check the travelers up. we are working closely with the fbi on that process. i do think it is going to take a couple of years for us to do that. just given the inherent challenges in making sure that you have a process that is safe, secure, and allows the fbi to adequately capture the fingerprint in electronic means. we can get back a specific briefing on what we think those timelines are, but i do think it will take a number of years before we have the capability to do that. rep. rutherford: i bring that up because i want to make sure that

in our funding, we are able to assist you, because i think that will be important. i really have not heard any talk about what those needs are specifically. i would be interested to see as the budget comes out in the future. second thing that, i want to say, thank you to tsa. something that happens during this pandemic that a lot of people, because it happened at the very beginning, a lot of people did not know, or really appreciate the burden that was placed on tsa and helping to repatriate so many americans who are scattered across the globe. i know you all helped, i think something north of 100,000 americans get back home.

i was amazed in my district, i have no idea how many people from my district were scattered in some very remote locations around the globe. they are doing some great work, but they needed to come back home when the pandemic kit. tsa was just an amazing partner in helping my office get my people back home. i want to say thank you for that. i know we got a lot of the accolades, but i know you guys at the state department did a lot of the work, so thank you for that. madam chair, i see my time has run out, and i will yield back. chair allard: mr. aguilar. rep. aguilar: acting

administrator, just wanted to ask you a couple of questions on something that came up in your verbal testimony. you mentioned that twice as many firearms were seized in 2019. that is the highest in the 19 year history of your agency. he said a majority of them were loaded. can you talk to me a little bit about why you think that is happening, and you talked about some educational opportunities, and some of the efforts that you are undertaking to give people the correct information about the inability to carry firearms. mr. lajoye: it really is an interesting question about why we think it is happening. we have seen the number of things during the pandemic that caused us concern. i know that efa spoke about

their efforts and zero-tolerance policy about the dramatic increase in assaults on flight crews. we are certainly seeing those incidents increase and a lot of people have not been used it to traveling and they may not be as informed on how to properly transport a firearm, but just for perspective, the last week of april, we had 120 firearms that we kept, we stopped at our checkpoint from getting on board an aircraft, and in one day alone, 32 of them. this is a public safety concern, because as i pointed out, these are 80% of them are loaded, they are often just thrown into the bottom of a bag, the excuse we generally get most often is, they simply forgot it was in there. what we have been focusing on is not only regulatory enforcement responsibilities to make sure

that we are pursuing enforcement actions against anyone who would bring a firearm to a checkpoint, but also how can we educate, how can we direct them to state and local jurisdictions, because different dates in different cities have laws in place with respect to firearms. one of the things we did, a glossy that we developed how to properly educate the public. and federal security directors all around the country are working closely to get this to gun clubs. we are working closely with u.s. attorneys to make sure that in these especially egregious cases, we can bring prosecutions for some individuals. the number of repeat offenders is exceedingly low. so we really do think the education can go a long way towards mitigating these

numbers, but it continues to be a concern. we work closely with our airport partners, and in this regard, it is going to be continued focus for our public safety perspective. rep. aguilar: how much discretion is used for first-time offenders? mr. lajoye: it depends on the nature. if they are aggravating factors that exist, that would tend towards the upper limit of what that simple -- a penalty may look like, but it really depends on if there are other aggravating factors. so depending on the circumstances, that would dictate what civil penalty may look like? rep. aguilar: i appreciate the answers as someone who flies incredibly often, and very far distances. i appreciate the work that you are doing to vet these out, but

also, it shows that there is a lot more that we can do. appreciate your efforts. i yield back. chair allard: i don't believe there are any more questions. with that, mr. lajoye, thank you for your time. the subcommittee on homeland stands adjourned. mr. lajoye: thank you members of the subject committee -- subcommittee, thank you madam chair. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store with a collection of online products and every purchase help support our nonprofit operations. contact information for members of congress and the biden administration cabinet. browse our newest products at c-spanshop.org.

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