mr. neffenger has made it a priority. there's a day that doesn't go by at tsa where this isn't the priority. i can tell you that every single senior leader that he talks to at tsa, this is the topic of discussion. >> okay. >> i don't want you to think that it's not a priority. >> okay. but i got to go back to the original point i made earlier, he needs the right team to do it. >> sure. >> sir, if i can, i work in the field operation and i'm responsible for everything in the state of kansas. i was at maine last year, iowa ten years before that, indiana before that. there's a stereotype with the airlines that all they care about is customer service. that's not accurate. there are a lot of airlines and airports who partner with tsa every day. we are the only entity with the dhs that deals with three constants, departures, arrivals, connections. when we're not doing our zob, they have a right to be upset. the problem right now is that the previous leadership team oversaw tsa put in a plan a without a plan b. that's reflective

mr. neffenger, thank you for being here. mr. neffenger, as you know, i represent georgia. of course, hartsfield jackson airport, the busiest airport in the world, this is a major problem. the back log we have there. in fact i just went out, stepped outside a few minutes ago to have a picture taken with some visitors from georgia. they were telling me this morning, this morning, you know, one of them commented "i only had to wait 30 minutes in line." you know, it is unacceptable what is happening here. i just want to make sure we are on the same page here. at hartsfield recently, they just opened up the south checkpoint. they started using a new system, the radiofrequency identification on the bins, so they can put their stuff in there and they don't have to load the bins. i hope that is going to help some. you and i have spoken before about privatization, and as you know, and full disclosure i'm big on privatization. atlanta and the bigger airports are indicating to us, at least to me, that it's beyond the scope of a bureaucracy to be able to do this. and i just don't get

mr. neffenger, i'm not here just to bust your chops. but his line of questioning was from the other side of the aisle, and it -- what we heard raised great questions and it was documented by staff, the amounts of money that were used to pay to transfer people in retribution, it was -- it was -- and then the other thing too, sometimes -- i think -- i was telling the chairman, i think you're a good guy. i think you were a good guy to be sent in to clean up the mess. but sometimes the leader is fed mushrooms and kept in the dark. i'll put that as politely as we can. and mr. cummings described to you what we heard is going on that you're being fed this information by these people who are protecting their rear ends. i'm trying to put this in terms that can be transmitted on c-span, the family community. but, again, this is our concern. i help create tsa. i'll never forget mr. mineta and i went out and we, i think it was, like, we had a goal of 20 or 30 minutes from curb to the gate. that was our -- that's when it was under the transportation

mr. neffenger, admirable neffenger and what you plan to do with that. with that, mr. chairman, we'll hold the record open for any members who would like to submit a written statement. we recognize our witnesses at today's one panel pleased to welcome mr. peter neffenge rerks and john roth inspector of homeland security. we welcome you both pursuant to committee rules all witnesses are to be sworn before they testify. you've each testified here previously, but if you would please rise and raise your right hand. >> under my leadership, tsa has established high of performance and accountability. i want to thank inspector general roth for his support. i greatly value his oversight to and i have been working with closely with him during my tenure. my leadership perspective is shaped by more than three decades of national service in crisis leadership. throw my career i have emphasized professional integrity and duty to mission as foundational elements of service for myself and for the dedicated civil servants and military members i have been entrusted to lead. since taking

mr. neffenger, admiral neffenger, who cleaned up a mess called deepwater horizon. where the coast guard was buying ships that didn't float, radar systems that were supposed to have surveillance of 360 degrees with 180 degrees, radios that when they got wet they didn't work. he cleaned up the mess. and saved this country and the coast guard probably hundreds of millions of dollars and sir, no matter what happens in this hearing, i if ythank you. i really do. last month our committee heard testimony from three transportation security administration employees. they raised troubling allegations about personnel practices that stretched back several years in some cases. the employees who came forward deserved to have their allegations thoroughly and fairly investigated. and i emphasize that. it's one thing to allege, but we need all the facts so that we can be about the business of not only hearing testimony but bringing about the reform that is necessary. i'm sure you would agree with that, mr. roth. unfortunately, the committee has not yet had the opportunity to fully

mr. neffenger needs a team around him that can do that. in this process you're talking about, this tracking, this mechanism, the numbers in the data doesn't lie and it's forever. once you put it into the record and once you track it, it's consistent over time, and that's what we need is consistent, persistent, quality leadership because factual data will make us better. ms. norton: mr. livingston, they gave me something of what you said to staff indicating that these nondisclosure agreements stand in the way. i notice -- and of course, i'd like to know whether you think our bill that says that you can't restrict the employee from disclosing waste, fraud, or abuse to congress, special council or the inspector general, whether that reaches far enough? mr. livingston: i think we overuse the nondisclosure agreements in my agency. i think every legal case we have ends in one, and i think that's an abuse of the power we have. i did write a statement to that. i will look for it very quickly and read it to you. every case from a misconduct or e.e.

mr. neffenger. he spent a good amount of time talking about the $90,000 bonus nobody has really against bonuses more than a hot -- then i have with the tsa despite their understandable frustration of what they endured comedies whistle-blowers repeatedly told the committee that administrator neffenger was taking positive steps and make clear he sets a course for the agency to put a top priority where it should be on security. for example,, a program manager the chief risk officer testified that administrator neffenger who is a man the integrity tsa were not compromised at the expense end when on to say cahow we will get better and keep pushing a better process. and we will get better and the administrator neffenger has made his priority. sirree the security operations, and these are whistle-blowers since he has been in there has been a shift to get them to go back and it is important to make sure that we assure our officers because somebody will have to wait a few extra minutes we had the administrat

mr. neffenger, admiral neffenger who cleaned up a mess called deepwater horizon where the coast guard was buying ships that didn't float. radar systems that were supposed to have surveillance of 360 degrees with 180 degrees, radios that when they got wet, they didn't work. he cleaned up the mess and saved this country and the coast guard probably hundreds of millions of dollars. and, sir, no matter what happens in this hearing, i thank you. i really do. last month our committee heard testimony from three transportation security administration employees. they raised troubling allegations about personnel practices that stretched back several years in some cases. the employees who came forward deserve to have their allegations thoroughly and fairly investigated. are and i emphasize that. it's one thing to allege, but we need all the facts so that we can be about the business of not only hearing testimony but bringing about the reform that is necessary. i'm sure you would agree with that. unfortunately, the committee has not yet had the opportunity to fully examine or substantiate their claim

mr. peter neffenger and mr. john roth, inspector of home lant scooter, we welcome you both pursuant to committee rules all witnesses are to be sworn before they testify, you've each testified here previously but if you will please rise and raise your right hand, do you solemnly swear or affirm that the truth that you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. let the record reflect that each witness answered in affirmative. we like to limit the oral testimony for five minutes but your entire written statement will be entered into the record. you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, good morning, chairman chaffetz. i sincerely appreciate oversight at tsa, the issue has been of great concern to me as well. i commit to you that under my leadership tsa has established high standards of performance and accountabilities. i also want to thank inspector general roth for his support, i great deal value the oversight and i have been working closely with him during my tenure. my lead

mr. neffenger, thank you for being here. mr. neffenger as you know i represent georgia. of course, hartsfield jackson airport the busiest airport in the world, this is a major problem. the back log we have there. in fact i just went out, stepped outside a few minutes ago to have a picture taken with some visitors from georgia. they were telling me this morning, this morning, you know, one of them commented i only had to wait 30 minutes in line. well, you know, it's just -- unacceptable what's happening here. i just want to make sure that we're on the same page here. at hartsfield recently, they just opened up the south checkpoint. and started using a new system, the radio frequency identification on the bins so they can bput their stuff in there. hopefully that's going to help some. you and i have spoken before about privatization, and as you know, and full disclosure i'm big on privatization. atlanta and the bigger airports are indicating to us, at least to me, that it's beyond the scope of a bureaucracy to be able to do this. and i just don't get warm and fuzzy feeling

mr. neffenger. he added, and i quote, since mr. ffenger has come in, i've heard nothing in terms of misconduct. end of quote. under administrator neffenger, t.s.a. has issued new policies and clarified the membership and role of the executive resources council to curtail the abuse of multiple achievement bonuses for the same activities and ensure directed reassignments are made only to support agency goals. administrator neffenger has also moved to address the airport security lapses identified by the inspector general and by the agency's own testing teams that we examine in this committee's hearing last fall. he has ended the managed inclusion program that committed individuals who had not received background risk assessment to receive expedited screening and he has placed agency focus squarely on resolving all alarms at screening checkpoints. as neffenger testified before this committee last fall, he is and i quote readjusting the measurements of success and focusing on security rather than speed. end of quote. so i am pleased to

mr. neffenger, last point i just wanted to make. we have a request i want to reiterate the bonus policy. one of the criticisms i believe from the inspector general was there really wasn't a bonus policy in place. so what is it? in 2015, for instance, the senior members that were the tses members who made less than $160,000 were ineligible for a bonus, even if they achieved the highest level of excellence. but if you made more than $160,000. even if your performance evaluation came in lower you could get a bonus. that seems so upside down and wrong. >> i'll get you the policy for the record, mr. chairman, so you can see what we've done. >> mr. roth, do you have any comment on that? >> no, just what was in our investigation, which was that the policy was very sort of loose, but we had a commitment from tsa that they would fix the policy. my understanding is they have. >> okay. it's something we'd like to look at. mr. roth, last question, what's your biggest concerns? >> just the size of the enterprise. 2 million passengers a day, 450

mr. neffenger, say the it tsa expects to screen considerably more people this year than they did just a fewngress to blame for these long lines that we've seen? >> well, first of all, the congress and republican congress the last three years each of the last three years gave more money to tsa than the administration requested, each of those years. we also changed the formula so some of the airlines that didn't pay pay and they have more money in fees coming in so they have more money. they had 5,000 vacancies. they only hired about 400 people. about 30% of the people they hire are washed out in the first year. they cannot recruit, they cannot train, they cannot manage these people. >> you don't think that quantity is the solution? >> well, no, it isn't. also, the focus, now they're shaking down people who pose no risk. the risk is not vetting people who work at airports, they don't even check these people. they don't have social security numbers for nationals working there. they don't do the things they should be doing to ensure we connect the dots and that's a failure of a government funct

mr. chairman. sir, neffenger, good morning. i appreciate the collaborative effort we're working on with my subcommittee. in fact, we met for an hour and a half the other day at your offices. i appreciate the frank discussions and your commitment to getting things done and putting politics aside. something piqued my curious i don't seety talking today. that is the fees surrounding precheck. there's a precheck building in the senate now extensively because the senator wants the fees to go to the general treasury. i want to talk about these fees a second. what does that $85 go towards? >> as i said, it primarily covers the full program cost. there's a component that reimburses the fbi for the background checks that they do. that's a fixed fee that the fbi charges to conduct the background checks. there is a component of the fee that covers tsa's administrative cost because it's a self-funding program. it pays for the overhead and the staff. and then the bulk of the fee then goes to the vendor to cover their costs, both for these -

mr. palmer. >> i am the guy you have been waiting on -- the last one. administrator neffenger, how many have led the office since the tsa was created? >> i don't know the exact number. i will get that to you. >> 11. i ask that because it concerns me the office suffers from that rate of turnover. would you agree? >> turnover in offices is challenging always. >> particularly the office responsible for your intelligence and analysis. are you looked into that? >> yes, sir, and i brought in a new chief of intelligence and one thing i asked him to do was make sure we build a world-class, high quality intelligence operation and he is in the process of doing that. >> that is mr. bush? >> tom bush, yes, sir. >> are you aware of any security violations committed by oia officials? >> i am not sure if you are refferencing anything in particular? >> i am asking you have are aware of any security violations committed by oia officials? >> i know prior to my arrival there was an employee being investigated. >> that answer is yes? >> yes. >> you believe they should follow the rules handling cl

mr. neffenger, look around the committee room here. all our members use the airports to come to work every week. and i'm sure like i, they are anxiously awaiting your testimony. i yield back. >> i thank the ranking member. other members are reminded that opening statements may be submitted to the record. i'm pleased to have admiral neffenger on this very important and timely topic. admiral peter neffenger serves as a sixth administrator of the transportation security dministration where he leads operations at more than 150 airplanes within the united states and a workforce of almost 60,000 employees. prior to joining t.s.a., the admiral served as the 25 vice commandant of the coast guard and the deputy coast commandant. we thank you, sir for being here today. and we thank you for your service. your full written statement appears in the record. the chair now recognizes admiral neffenger. admiral neffenger: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. i sincerely appreciate the operations insuring that our operation has the resour

mr. neffenger which applies? >> we are resolving this.to wanted to make bell leadership change and they did for a new direction going forward. we are working the process and we will work very rapidly. >>. >> so why is he made the choice on paid administrative leave? >> a very short-term decision to make the neck steps and move forward with the new direction. >> i will respect that so short term can you give us an idea? >> i intend to determine that this week. >> of their places to dig out of those voluntary expenses the one that testified from maine with the 100,000 expense it is it correct you no longer operate under those procedures? >> i discontinued that and i kept the expenses. >> i appreciate that. with a new chief of operations fell oversee daily allocation of forces and according to your web site those war security operations is responsible for the airport checkpoint in baggage screening operations. is that a fair statement? so are you had a place where you can reveal any long-term plans at this point? >> not a this point. but tha

neffenger doing this a sycophant. sort of a reengineering of airport security. thank you, mr. chairman. admiral neffenger is a phenomenal leader and i use that adjective. the assessment is underway, but the changes are underway as well. admiral neffenger has not waited to complete the assessment before implementing reforms already identified as needed. you mentioned canines. we've deployed additional canine center looking to deploy more. they are in fact extraordinarily effective tool both from a security to them critically from a throughput is because individuals who pass the canines review, if you will, can go through expedited screening just as though they had enrolled and succeeded in being approved for tsa pre-check. so the canine deployments, from a risk-based approach, reengineering the tsa pre-check process, maximizing the marketing of the tsa pre-check. if the security imperative. it is also an advantage. we went last year from the daily average of 3000 enrollees into tsa pre-check to now close to an average of daily moment of 15,000. two days ago we reached the 16,000 mark. tho

mr. cox: yes, sir. that will definitely help with that situation. administrator neffengerpoke to meet yesterday and said his attrition rate with full-time t.s.o's was around 7% to 8%. again, it's 20% in the part time. people want full-time employment. they will go to other federal jobs or other jobs in the airport seeking full-time employment. so moving that money to move them into full time will definitely fix a lot of the problems. mr. katko: during the added crisis we're having at airports is moving someone from full time from part time to full time doesn't take any additional training. mr. cox: they're ready to go. many of them in peak times are already working 40 hours a week or possibly more than 40 hours a week, so they are ready to go. there is a cap that's been put on the number of full-time employees. so if congress could fix that, that would help with a lot of the situation. mr. katko: thank you very much, mr. cox. i have so many more questions but i can't go over my time too much. i now recognize the ranking member, mr. payne, for five minutes of questions. mr.

mr. chairman. i wore them just for you. i'd also like to thank you for holding this hearing. it's good we're having this hearing immediately following the full committee hearing with administrator neffenger yesterday. wait times have been a major cause of concern within our nation's airports. last week, for example these extreme wait times, the transportation security administration reallocated resources to chicago midway international airport and newark liberty airport to decrease the length of screening lines. while i'm pleased that tsas are being given the opportunity to be converted to full time and the administration has taken steps to address the problem in the interim we need to find a viable long-term solution to this problem. rheal locating or taking one airport's resources and giving it to another will only fix the problem temporarily for the summer travel period, tsa predicted that nearly 740 million individuals will use commercial aviation to travel which happens to be the most -- most air travelers this country has ever seen. in contrast, tsos were responsible for screening passengers at baggage as some of the lowest number -- are at some of the lowest numbers we've seen in

mr. chairman. i wore them just for you. >> no orange. >> i'd also like to thank you for holding this hearing. it's good we're having this hearing immediately following the full committee hearing with administrator neffenger yesterday. wait times have been a major cause of concern within our nation's airports. last week, for example these extreme wait times, the transportation security administration reallocated resources to chicago midway international airport and newark liberty airport to decrease the length of screening lines. while i'm pleased that tsas are being given the opportunity to be converted to full time and the administration has taken steps to address the problem in the interim we need to find a viable long-term solution to this problem. rheal locating or taking one airport's resources and giving it to another will only fix the problem temporarily for the summer travel period, tsa predicted that nearly 740 million individuals will use commercial aviation to travel which happens to be the most -- most air travelers this country has ever seen. in contrast, tsos were responsible for screening passengers at baggage as some of the lowest number -- are at some of the lowest numbers we've seen in

mr. neffenger's leadership that

mr. neffenger sounds like you're developing a plan for the future cleaning up things in the past. probably the biggest thing that concerns me is the issue with mr. hogan. do you believe mr. hogan's performance balances are justified for the taxpayer? >> i don't that bonus was justified. >> i'm glad to hear that. as a leader, did mr. hogue fan have key role in direct reassignments. >> he had a role. these came out of a different office. >> when you say a role, can you expound on that for a moment? >> office of security operations ultimately has to get the people moved from one location to the other and perhaps has to carry out the order to make it happen. >> is it fair to say he had a key factor? >> he had a role, yes, sir. >> in looking at that, at his situation and his involvement, i'm sure you considered replacing mr. hogan as director of oso given his responsibility for screening failures and role reassignments and questionable bonus paints, is that fair to say? >> i would like to back up little bit, mr. walker -- >> i appreciate it. i want you to answer the question. you're wel