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June 09, 2015, 11:03 am

House Homeland Security chief open to TSA 'private screeners'

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After the ouster of the Transportation Security Administration interim director over a string of missteps, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is calling for Congress to "totally revamp the TSA process.” 
"The system is not working right now and it needs to be fixed, and I want to be the leader to stop it," the House Homeland Security Committee chairman said on Fox's "America's Newsroom" Tuesday.
"We need to look also at whether private screeners are better than public screeners. I think they can be more efficient, more effective."
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His comments come in light of the recent Inspector General findings that 73 employees "were cleared for access to secure airport areas despite representing a potential transportation security threat." Many of the employee files lacked key information that made searches harder, complicated by the fact that the agency didn't receive all watch-list information.
McCaul called that lack of information sharing a "complete failure of the system."
The agency also recently failed 67 out of 70 national security tests where undercover agents attempted to bring fake explosives into airports. Those testing failures led to the reassignment of acting Administrator Melvin Carraway.
The White House has nominated Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger as TSA chief, but he hasn't yet been voted on by the Senate.
McCaul's spokeswoman told The Hill that he supports Neffenger's nomination and is hopeful that the Senate will confirm him to end the string of temporary administrators.
On Fox, he said that the lack of leadership and failure to identify potential threats posed by employees is a "threat to the American people" because terror groups are trying to put "non-metallic" explosive devices onto planes.
"It takes one person with a bag putting an explosive device in that bag on an airplane to blow it up," he said.
"From the briefings I get, the intelligence briefings, they are still very intent on blowing up airplanes. What better way to do that than someone compromised from within that has ties to terrorism?"