GAO and IG Reports: Significant Problems With TSA’s Airport Security

In testimony presented Wednesday to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) presented reports highly critical of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) approach towards airport security -- an administration with a $7 billion budget and 61,000 TSA personnel, including 46,000 screeners.

The TSA refused to send the acting administrator -- Melvin Carraway -- to testify in response to these criticisms. The GAO was particularly concerned with the TSA’s inability to determine the “root causes of screening errors” at airports:

Officials with TSA's Office of Security Operations told us in the course of our September 2014 review that evaluating the root causes of screening errors would be helpful and stated they were in the early stages of forming a group to discuss these errors. However, TSA was not able to provide documentation of the group's membership, purpose, goals, time frames, or methodology. Therefore, we recommended in September 2014 that TSA develop a process for evaluating the root causes of screening errors at the checkpoint and then implement corrective measures to address those causes. DHS concurred with our recommendations and has developed a process for collecting and evaluating data on the root causes of screening errors. However, as of April 2015, TSA had not yet shown that the agency has implemented corrective measures to address the root causes.

The IG indicated they had “conducted a series of covert penetration tests -- essentially testing TSA's ability to stop us from bringing simulated explosives and weapons through checkpoints, as well as testing whether we could enter secured areas through other means.” “Although the results of those tests are classified, we identified vulnerabilities caused by human and technology-based failures,” said John Roth, the DHS-IG.

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Despite spending billions on aviation security technology, our testing of certain systems has revealed no resulting improvement

Roth also noted that his “audit results show that TSA faces significant challenges in contracting for goods and services,” and that “despite spending billions on aviation security technology, our testing of certain systems has revealed no resulting improvement.” Furthermore, the Roth testified that his organization’s “audits [of the TSA] have repeatedly found that human error -- often a simple failure to follow protocol -- poses significant vulnerabilities.” DHS also looked at how TSA plans for, buys, deploys, and maintains its equipment, finding there are “challenges at every step in the process [that] have a real and negative impact on transportation security as well.” In oral testimony, Roth said he was “deeply concerned” about the TSA failure rate: “we found significant human error.” Jody Hice (R-GA), a member of the Committee, also expressed concerns that “1400 security badges [went] missing out of the Atlanta airport alone over a two-year period ... [and there is] no policy to deal with this.” Rafi Ron, the President and CEO New Age Security Solutions and former Director of Security at Tel-Aviv Ben-Gurion International Airport, also testified that billions of dollars are being invested each year in passenger screening, but very little on the airport perimeter. There is “relatively easy access of individuals through the perimeter,” said Ron, because the TSA invests “all resources on the front door, leaving the back door open.”