As noted here a couple of weeks ago, the TSA experience has become so flawed that the delays are forcing the airlines to finally weigh in on the problem.
New evidence from whistleblowers inside the agency describe a situation even worse than the public’s perception of it.
More than 100 of the Transportation Security Administration’s 48,000 airport screeners quit each week, and whistle-blowers told congressional investigators that “we remain an agency in crisis.”
The personnel losses affect airport screening times across the country.
“Many airports are complaining that TSA is getting worse, not better,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz
82%.TSA staffers testified Wednesday that senior employees are often not held accountable for misconduct and the TSA office created a hostile work environment by intimidating personnel by abusing integrity testing.
“These leaders are some of the biggest bullies in government,” Jay Brainard, a TSA security director in Kansas, told committee. “While the new administrator of TSA has made security a much-needed priority once again, make no mistake about it, we remain an agency in crisis.”
Whenever any Republican I know waxes nostalgic for the George W. Bush years in Washington, all I can think about is the fact that he created an unholy bureaucratic behemoth where none was needed. The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA were panicky responses in the “more spending and more government is the answer” vein that haven’t provided the greatest return on investment.
True, there hasn’t been another 9/11, but there weren’t any before 9/11 either. All of the air travel safety since 2001 can’t directly be attributed to what TSA is doing.
What we’re seeing from the TSA insiders is what we see from every bloated federal response: bureaucratic inefficiency perpetrated by dictatorial feds who think they are untouchable.
Oversight Committee Member Florida Republican Rep. John Mica
58% again cautioned, “Neffenger is well-intentioned. He has tried to correct the situation with more training etc., but TSA can’t recruit. They can’t train. They can’t retain. They can’t schedule. They can’t schedule and it can’t manage the huge bureaucracy that’s been created. That’s part of the problem. And it won’t be corrected.”
More is rarely better when the federal government is involved. This bloat won’t keep us safe much longer.
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