Homeland Security

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE NORMANY Y. MINETA

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

Before the

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION

COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

U.S HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 23, 2002

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Congressman Lipinski, and Members of the Subcommittee.  With me today is Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson, Acting Under Secretary James Loy, and Assistant Inspector General Alexis Stefani. 

Today Jim Loy makes his first appearance before Congress as the Acting head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).  I know that many of you have had the pleasure of working with Jim in his previous position as Commandant of the Coast Guard.  He is an outstanding manager, with impeccable credentials in security, intelligence, law enforcement and customer service.  He has deep operational skills and leadership focus.  This is only his second day as Acting Under Secretary, so I would ask that you welcome him to this large task.

This testimony is an opportunity to provide a status report on our work to build the TSA and meet the vital objectives that Congress set out for this new agency just over eight months ago.  TSA's every step has, appropriately, been the focus of intense scrutiny. 

There is a great deal of hand wringing going on in various quarters about the difficulty of federalizing security at the nation's commercial airports.   Some are urging Congress to revise its mandated deadlines, which were spelled out in detail last Fall in the TSA legislation.  Others seek earmarks or payments of non-federal security costs that distract from TSA's core mission.

The Department of Transportation willingly took on the responsibility to implement that law and its ambitious timetables.  I recruited a superb team that has met literally every single one of the many tough Congressional deadlines to this point -- tasks that in normal times would have been the work of years of preparation.  We have made tremendous progress.  There is much more to accomplish.

We shouldered this task with enthusiasm for an important reason:  we are at war against determined, well-trained terrorists who seek to attack and seriously damage our nation and its people.  Without doubt, this threat has not abated.  Just the opposite.  The threat is real, the war is real.  So the questions we meet here today to discuss are profoundly important. 

President Bush has rightly urged the American people to return to life as normal.  He has encouraged us to vacation with our loved ones, to conduct business as usual, not to be cowered by the evil ones.  But make no mistake, the TSA employees we are recruiting and training nationwide are frontline troops in the war against terrorism.

Unlike the military troops that our nation sent to meet this challenge abroad, at home we began TSA's deployment with a blank slate and a clear command:  get the job done, and do it this year.  No excuses.  Again, we accepted that mandate willingly, because I have read the intelligence reports, I know the threat is very real.

Today I was expecting to discuss TSA's challenges, to seek your counsel, report to you on what is working, and tell you what needs improving.  Most importantly, I was prepared to renew our pledge to meet the ambitious deadlines established by Congress and explain exactly how we were going to get there.

But the extraordinary delay in approving emergency funding and new restrictions imposed on TSA have dramatically undermined our ability to meet this goal.

Let me explain why.  Four months ago, President Bush asked Congress to approve a $4.4 billion Emergency Supplemental to stand up this new agency.  That is a lot of money, but that should not be surprising because the mandates set out in the TSA legislation are ambitious. 

We set to work in good faith, launching the massive effort required to meet the statutory plan.  We waited for the funding through May, June and now July. 

In the meantime, TSA borrowed money, renegotiated payment schedules with our vendors, deferred purchase of explosive detection equipment, and set back the pilot testing of various security measures.  Now TSA is literally days away from running out of money to pay for the ongoing work of screeners nationwide.  We expected active Congressional oversight, but we also needed your support to fund TSA, and to do it in a timely manner.

The Administration's Emergency Supplemental request was the amount we needed to do the job.  No more, no less.  Last Friday, the appropriations Conference Committee voted to cut $1 billion from the $4.4 billion requested by President Bush and to impose new restrictions on our ability to get the job done.  Here are five facts about the Conference report:

• First, it eliminates $550 million off the top;
• Second, it sets aside $480 million in a so-called contingency fund that may not be available to TSA;
• Third, it imposes $445 million in numerous earmarks not requested or supported by the Administration;
• Fourth, it limits the total number of full-time TSA employees to 45,000 -- at least 20,000 employees short of what TSA needs to meet its statutory mission; and
• Finally, report language severely restricts my discretionary authority to manage TSA expenses in a cost-effective manner.

In short:  TSA's budget was cut by at least $1 billion, possibly up to $1.5 billion.  That is a whopping 34 percent cut from the President's request.

Here is the dilemma Congress has created.  You have not yet changed TSA's mission, yet the budget to do the job is apparently on the way to being radically diminished while new restrictions and mandates are being imposed.  What can be done?  The amount of money Congress is about to approve simply will not support the mandates and timetables for aviation security that Congress set last Fall for TSA.

Less money with no flexibility means fewer TSA employees, less equipment, longer lines, delay in reducing the hassle factor at airports, and/or diminished security at our nation's airports.  Frankly, these conflicting signals sent by Congress have forced us to regroup and revise the TSA business plan.  That will likely take several more weeks.  It will involve complex negotiations, and a review of literally thousands of TSA commitments and plans.

We need the supplemental now to continue fighting the war on terrorism and protecting the homeland.  The Administration will propose and support a significant budget amendment for FY 2003 for TSA.  Even if approved, however, we are confronted with a load TSA cannot lift.  Such funds will not arrive prior to our having to make immediate changes to our existing deployment schedule.  There are a number of voices in Congress calling for more resources, or less; maintaining current law, or seeking flexibility in the law.  What is needed most at TSA today, however, is clarity.  Tell us the mission, give us the resources to do that mission in a timely fashion, and we will accomplish it.

*          *          *

TSA was poised for achieving tremendous success.  We are managing two massive roles simultaneously.  First, in February, we assumed responsibility for the contract screeners formerly employed by the airlines.  We integrated over 1,000 FAA security employees into the new TSA organization.  In the short term, TSA has significantly strengthened these existing security systems with new tools and techniques.  TSA is, in other words, maintaining and improving the existing security system while we systematically disassemble it.

Second, we are building from scratch an entirely new transportation security organization to support core security tasks at 429 airports nationwide.  Today we are eight months into implementation, four months from the one-year deadline for full Federal staffing of checkpoints, and a little over five months from the deadline for installation of explosive detection systems.  My message to the DOT team has been consistent and clear:  we will do what it takes to meet all the deadlines Congress set in the Act.

We have set up an unprecedented public-private partnership that is supported by comprehensive services from three major contractors, each of whom is required contractually to complete their work by the statutory deadlines -- provided we have enough money to pay them.  Our airport rollout began in earnest within the last month with these firms being deployed nationwide.

Screener hiring.  We have contracted with NCS Pearson to recruit, assess and hire about 55,000 passenger and baggage screeners at 429 airports.  By the end of this week, we will have posted job vacancy announcements for every airport in the country, and will soon receive our one-millionth inquiry for employment with TSA.  We have received more than half a million applications, and completed the hiring process for more than 6,500 screeners so far.  By mid-August, we planned to be hiring over 4,000 new screeners per week.

Screener training.  We have developed a world-class training program with the assistance of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and leaders from the private sector.  This program, which includes 40 hours of classroom training and 60 hours of on-the-job training, is being delivered by instructors from Lockheed Martin for passenger screeners, and by Boeing for baggage screeners.  We have ramped up to train more than 5,000 screeners per week.

Overall project coordination and checkpoint re-design.  Lockheed Martin will upgrade screening checkpoints based on the model we tested successfully at Pier C at BWI, a model that significantly decreases wait times and prevents costly terminal evacuations.  Lockheed is already in place in about 250 airports.  Their team has built a sophisticated, automated system to track over 185,000 discreet tasks at the 429 airports.

EDS installation.  Boeing engineers are assessing airport facilities, submitting design plans, and will soon undertake needed construction.  As you have heard from your airport constituents, many of these projects are complex, though absolutely necessary to meet the requirements of the law.  Boeing is already at work in about 150 airports.

With this deployment, we are also implementing a four-part plan to reduce the hassle factor of airport travel.  It includes steps to end gate screening, and new tools to identify selectees more intelligently. 

I am confident that, with funding, these plans would have enabled us to complete the job you gave us.  Now much of the program I've just described will have to be thoroughly reevaluated in the next few weeks.

*          *          *

I want to reiterate that we are not asking for a free pass from rigorous oversight or criticism -- that is expected.  Nor am I telling you that everything is perfect.  Everything is not tidy, but it is unreasonable to expect from a massive stand-up the same type of certainty and stability found in long-established programs.

I have perhaps been too blunt today, but the circumstances demand no less.  I know how difficult your job is, and understand the competing pressures each of you faces in making sound policy. 

I come before you as a former Chairman of this Subcommittee and former Chairman of your full committee, one who loves this great institution -- the Congress.  I am a lifelong Democrat proudly serving an outstanding Republican President. 

I close with a simple message.  There are literally thousands of committed TSA employees working furiously to improve transportation security.  Please support them and their mission.

Restore the money and the discretion to complete our security work effectively.  Give me the tools and flexibility we need to build this young organization.  We will then be able to hand it off to a new Homeland Security Department, led by a Cabinet colleague who, like me, will continue to work with you to strengthen TSA.