US House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) blasted the Transportation
Security Administration for skipping a Thursday House hearing on
aviation security.
Mica, who is nearing the end of his tenure as committee chairman, has long been a TSA critic, saying the agency has moved beyond the scope Congress intended when it created TSA in 2001 (with Mica playing a key role in drafting the legislation). Clearly angered by the decision of TSA administrator John Pistole to decline to testify at Thursday’s hearing or send a deputy, Mica voiced strong criticism of the agency.
“The administrator of TSA is stonewalling our committee,” he said at the opening of the hearing. “We created TSA and he refuses to work with us … They don’t want to respond to us, they just want to expand the bureaucracy it seems.”
Mica pointed to “meltdowns in several airports,” including allegations of TSA employees stealing from passengers at Honolulu and Newark airports, and said, “The passenger is now at risk from TSA of having personal effects pilfered … This is our front line of security and it’s a weak line when the passengers are at risk from TSA screeners … We have the flying public dramatically inconvenienced, I think almost violating their civil rights … We need to be closing down TSA as we know it.”
Explaining his decision not to testify, Pistole said the committee does not formally oversee TSA. The House also has a Homeland Security Committee.
Pistole said in a statement that House rules “state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration.” He added that TSA “will continue to work with its committees of jurisdiction to pursue effective and efficient security solutions” and noted that “TSA witnesses have testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 briefings for members of Congress” since January 2011.
Mica, who is nearing the end of his tenure as committee chairman, has long been a TSA critic, saying the agency has moved beyond the scope Congress intended when it created TSA in 2001 (with Mica playing a key role in drafting the legislation). Clearly angered by the decision of TSA administrator John Pistole to decline to testify at Thursday’s hearing or send a deputy, Mica voiced strong criticism of the agency.
“The administrator of TSA is stonewalling our committee,” he said at the opening of the hearing. “We created TSA and he refuses to work with us … They don’t want to respond to us, they just want to expand the bureaucracy it seems.”
Mica pointed to “meltdowns in several airports,” including allegations of TSA employees stealing from passengers at Honolulu and Newark airports, and said, “The passenger is now at risk from TSA of having personal effects pilfered … This is our front line of security and it’s a weak line when the passengers are at risk from TSA screeners … We have the flying public dramatically inconvenienced, I think almost violating their civil rights … We need to be closing down TSA as we know it.”
Explaining his decision not to testify, Pistole said the committee does not formally oversee TSA. The House also has a Homeland Security Committee.
Pistole said in a statement that House rules “state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration.” He added that TSA “will continue to work with its committees of jurisdiction to pursue effective and efficient security solutions” and noted that “TSA witnesses have testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 briefings for members of Congress” since January 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment