The government's Transportation Security Administration is still failing to catch covert government agents carrying weapons and other contraband through America's airports.
Federal watchdogs warned that TSA agents all over the country allowed undercover auditors (posing as travelers carrying prohibited items) to slip through their watch despite supposed thorough checks at airport entry checkpoints.
"In looking at the number of times people got through with guns or bombs in these covert testing exercises it really was pathetic. When I say that I mean pitiful," Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) reported during a House Oversight hearing, "Just thinking about the breaches there, it's horrific."
When a leaked report last summer revealed that TSA screeners failed to detect 95% of contraband (which included items like plastic explosives), the then former head of the TSA, Melvin Carraway, was quickly reassigned and replaced by TSA's new leadership under Peter Neffenger.
"I am hopeful that the days of TSA sweeping its problems under the rug and simply ignoring the findings and recommendations ... are coming to an end," Neffenger remarked after being on the job for four months.
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth couldn't detail the exact findings of the final report on covert testing of the TSA at eight major airports across the country, but he did share that the root of the security breaches could be traced back to failures in technology, procedure and human error.
In a separate report conducted by the General Accounting Office, it was further disclosed that the implementation of new technology like body scanners, programs such as no-fly lists, and detection procedures that include bomb-sniffing dogs were areas of improvement the TSA needed to work on.
So far, Neffenger's changes to the TSA since taking the lead in July include measuring performance by the number of banned items detected instead of passenger wait times, streamlining the number of procedures screeners must memorize, and better training for screeners for the equipment they use at airport checkpoints.
At the hearing, members of Congress were willing to let Neffenger have more time to make greater improvements in the agency he heads, but they also warned that he will be more closely monitored in the future. Regardless, some members of Congress were still unconvinced. "I don't care what I've heard today, I'm convinced the system cannot be fixed," Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) declared.
