Once Again Government Proves That It Cannot Run Anything Efficiently

TSA workers say agency makes travelers unsafe by canning whistleblowers

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Sam Rolley

It’s long past time to shut down the embattled Transportation Security Administration. That became even clearer Wednesday when TSA workers informed lawmakers that agency higher ups fire whistleblowers rather than addressing the security deficits they reveal.

During testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, TSA risk officer Mark Livingston told lawmakers that employees in fear of losing their jobs don’t report serious security concerns because of the agency’s culture.

Livingston told the lawmakers that he’s experienced the problem first hand. The TSA employee said he was demoted and took a $10,000 salary cut after he reported that an employee a coworker.

Think about that next time you’re having your genitals groped by one of TSA’s finest ahead of your next flight.

“You should be alarmed and concerned with these issues, because TSA employees are less likely to report operational security threats or relevant issues out of fear of retaliation,” Livingston told the lawmakers. “No one who reports issues is safe at TSA.”

Andrew Rhoades, assistant federal security director at TSA’s security operations, told lawmakers that he was similarly abused by the agency after pointing out misuse of taxpayer funds.

According to the TSA employee, he was blocked out of conversations with top TSA officials after pointing out the folly of constructing a $300,000 office in Minneapolis for a regional TSA director who wouldn’t even spend much time in the city.

“When you make suggestions like that, you get cut out of the meeting or you’re not consulted anymore,” Rhoades said. “It’s gross mismanagement”

A third witness told Congress that beyond protecting potential molesters and squandering boatloads of taxpayer money, TSA’s leadership is doing everything it can to ensure the culture of corruption continues within the agency.

“From 2011 to early 2015, TSA chose, in abundance, unprepared employees to fill key senior leadership vacancies. Many of these leaders lacked any security experience or had ever worked in a field operation their entire career,” Jay Brainard, federal security director at TSA’s Kansas office of security operations, said.

These serious allegations about misconduct within the TSA’s higher ranks come on the heels of a series of other disturbing reports about the agency.

Last fall, the Government Accountability Office reported that it was impossible to know whether the TSA actually makes anyone safer because the agency “has not consistently evaluated the overall effectiveness of new technologies before adopting them.”

Earlier in the year, a leaked Homeland Security Inspector General’s report revealed that TSA agents fail “to detect bombs and explosive materials 95 percent of the time.”

DHS officers posed as passengers at a number of major U.S. airports, succeeding 67 out of 70 times in smuggling bomb materials through TSA checkpoints

Last month, the Senate passed a bill aimed at streamlining the passenger screening process and increasing airport security. Sadly, it didn’t include major changes to the TSA.