mr. brainard. security director for the state of kansas in the office of security operations at the transportation security administration. mr. mark livington is the chief risk officer at the transportation security dministration and mr. andrew rhoades in the office of security operations at the t.s.a. we welcome you and thank you for eing here. if you will please rise and raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. thank you. you may be seated. let the record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. in order to allow time for discussion, we would appreciate if you would limit your verbal comment to five minutes. your entire written statement will be entered into the record. we will start with mr. brainard. you recognized for five minutes. make sure you bring that microphone up nice and close. you can straighten it out but we want to make sure we get you clearly on audio.

mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: while you were there in iowa, you received the highest performance rating that you could possibly received while you were working there and i also believe you received a federal security director of the year award? mr. brainard: yes, sir. i received the federal director of the year award. one of the two top awards you can receive in our agency and a number of other types of awards from local stakeholders, partners, fusion centers. mr. carter: right. ok. well, then as i understand it, they tried to reassign you to maine? mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: they tried to reassign me to maine. mr. brainard: they reassigned me to maine. mr. carter: after you received all these accolades and awards? mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: do you believe that was their way of trying to get rid of you, to reassign your position? mr. brainard: well, i can't speak to their motives. it would be unfair for me to speak to their motives. i speak to facts. mr. carter: was it a bigger airport? m

mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: while you were there in iowa, you received the highest performance rating that you could possibly received while you were working there and i also believe you received a federal security director of the year award? mr. brainard: yes, sir. i received the federal director of the year award. one of the two top awards you can receive in our agency and a number of other types of awards from local stakeholders, partners, fusion centers. mr. carter: right. ok. well, then as i understand it, they tried to reassign you to maine? mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: they tried to reassign you to maine. mr. brainard: they reassigned me to maine. mr. carter: after you received all these accolades and awards? mr. brainard: yes, sir. mr. carter: do you believe that was their way of trying to get rid of you, to reassign your position? mr. brainard: well, i can't speak to their motives. it would be unfair for me to speak to their motives. i speak to facts. mr. carter: was it a bigger airport?

mr. brainard and mr. rhoades a question. could one of you give a background kind of on how integrity tests are conducted at the airports? >> so i can give you some insight. integrity testing in tsa went into high gear shortly after a media story about ipads had taken place. our tsa office of inspection otherwise known as internal affairs will come out and they will run test items through, cash cards, money, dvds, colognes, and things like that. so the testing items come out, they conduct the integrity tests. when they conduct the integrity tests they'll come through with these items and then the federal security director will get a call. and we will be notified of the outcome. generally speaking they'll say we came through with x, y, and z items, can you recover them for us or return them to the lost and found? i will give you an example which i think that you certainly will appreciate. one of the items that they're notorious for planting in an airport are pens. they'll throw a pen on the floor, let's say, in queue, and tsa

mr. brainard and mr. rhodes a question. could one of you give a background kind of on how integrity tests are conducted at the airports. >> i can give you some insight. integrity testing in tsa went into high gear shortly after a media story about ipads had taken place. our tsa office of inspection will come out and run test items through, cash cards, money, dvds, clones and things like that. so the testing items come out, conduct the integrity tests. they're come through with these items and the federal security director will get a call and we will be notified of the outcome. they'll say we came through with x, y, z items. can you recover them for us. i will give you an example which i think that you certainly will appreciate. one of the items that they're notorious for planting in an airport are pens. they'll though a pen on the floor, let's say in cue, and tsa picks it up and doesn't turn it in. they'll fly back out a couple of investigators and they'll literally interrogate them and push for a resignation or and i know

mr. brainard, has your staff received this training? >> yes, ma'am. >> you discussed the impact that this training has had, and you stated, well, the management essentials training obviously has improved our situation in terms of how they conduct their jobs. the thoroughness i mean. there have been improvements in terms of, i think without seeing any test results, the detection capabilities. is that correct? >> yes, ma'am. >> administrator neffenger also we focus and resolving alarms at check points and testified he is readjusting the measurements of success to focus on security rather than speed. when you spoke with committee staff you were asked whether under administrator neffenger there had been a new emphasis on resolve is the alarm, you said, and i quote, absolutely. is that correct? >> yes, ma'am. >> what is the importance of resolving alarms at the check points? >> making sure that our people are thorough. the job that an officer does is certainly the most important job at tsa. one of the hazards of that job is when you're const

mr. brainard handled it very well. i'll go back just for the record and i think mr. lynch mentioned at the end the airlines were interested in moving product, moving people through and i think mr. brainard, you handled that extraordinarily well. i know some folks who work there and their families fly, nair friends fly and they care just as much about safety as we do. it's probably just as inaccurate to say the airlines only care about moving product as it would be to say all you care about is safety. that you don't care about the folks who have to stand in line and how long they do. in fact, i look to a longer conversation about who cares let less about it, cooperation or bureaucracy. i guess they're tied. i want to talk about the way the employees are treated. is anybody familiar with the circumstances at charleston, south carolina about kimberly barnett? just something we talked about here today. she complained about her supervisor falsifying records in her area. it was the k-9 use of the dog. she went to the o.s.c. which is where she was supposed to go and made th