TSA

Republicans in the House are seizing on a report from the Department of Homeland Security that recommends changes to the Transportation Security Administration after an investigation of improperly screened checked baggage at a Hawaiian airport last year. 

The TSA announced last year that it was firing close to 30 employees at Honolulu International Airport (HNL) for allowing luggage to pass through security without being checked for explosives.

DHS's inspector general said in a report commissioned on behalf of GOP Reps. John Mica (R-Fla.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) that the incident could have been avoided if TSA had better checks in place to make sure employees were properly handling luggage.

Mica and Chaffetz said Tuesday that the incident showed there could be problems with TSA's airport security practices at airports nationwide.

“Unfortunately, the Inspector General’s report further confirms what we’ve already witnessed through TSA security meltdowns at other airports in Newark, Charlotte, Fort Myers and elsewhere,” Mica, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement released by his office.  

Two House Democrats are demanding that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) move more quickly to implement a program aimed at preventing internal TSA employees from accessing information in order to jeopardize the security of the country's transportation systems.

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and subcommittee ranking member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) wrote to TSA Administrator John Pistole on this issue Wednesday, after a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report said TSA still has more work to do.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for an undercover investigation on Thursday into complaints of theft by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees.

Schumer sent TSA administrator John Pistole a letter Thursday, asking him to immediately address recent reports of agents stealing property from luggage and security checkpoints at airports around the country. 

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said Thursday that a media investigation into thefts from airport security checkpoints reveals the Transportation Security Administration is "crying out for reform."

ABC News reported Thursday that a TSA officer at Orlando, Fla.'s Sanford International Airport took home an iPad it purposely left behind at the airport's security checkpoint. The device was located using a tracking device, the station said.

Mica said Thursday that the report reinforced his frequent criticisms of TSA.

“This case in which a TSA employee absconded with private property from a screening checkpoint is another eye-opening example of how this bloated security agency cannot properly recruit, train, retain, and oversee a ballooning 65,000-person workforce,” Mica said in a statement released by his office.  

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is expanding its "PreCheck" known-traveler program to Newark, N.J.'s Liberty International Airport. 

Security at Newark Airport has been under intense scrutiny from lawmakers after a series of breaches gave at least one New Jersey lawmaker, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), a feeling of "déjà vu."

But in a blog post on its website this week, TSA said it was expanding the PreCheck program, which is part of the agency's move to "risk-based" security techniques, to the beleaguered New Jersey airport. 

The expansion will allow passengers flying through Newark on United Airlines to possibly "keep their shoes and belts on, and keep their laptops in their bags," TSA's blogger Bob Burns wrote. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is saying that a passenger who was allegedly detained because of her attitude was actually barred from flying because she refused to be screened.

A woman posted a video to YouTube under the name "AirportVideoofTSA" showing an exchange with a TSA employee in Houston in which she accuses the agent’s search of her of being “retaliatory for my attitude.” The unnamed agent in the video appears to reply, “Pretty much, yes,” which the passenger contends “is not making the airways safer.”

But in a recent blog post on the TSA’s website, the agency said there was more to the exchange than the YouTube video shows.

“You may have heard about a passenger in Houston last week who claimed that TSA officers prevented her from boarding her flight in ‘retaliation’ for her ‘attitude,’ ” TSA’s blogger, Bob Burns, wrote.

“But what you may not have heard is that the passenger refused a random screening procedure,” Burns continued. “The passenger initially ignored officers and then became verbally abusive. When a traveler does not allow a TSA officer to complete screening, it’s standard procedure for a law enforcement officer to be called to the area.”

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is reportedly telling lawmakers that it has improved the security process at Newark, N.J.'s Liberty International Airport.

Lawmakers from New Jersey, such as Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), have criticized the TSA for reports of security breaches at Liberty airport (abbreviated as EWR), which is the largest airport in their state. Last month, TSA shut down the airport for three hours after a passenger was allowed to pass to through a security checkpoint without being screened.

But New York City television station WNYW is reporting that TSA Administrator John Pistole has written a memo to lawmakers telling lawmakers that their concerns have been addressed.

"Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials at EWR have made substantial improvements to their screening operations to help prevent future security incidents," Pistole wrote according to the station, which is a Fox affiliate.

Airline baggage would be able to cross the Canadian-U.S. border with less of a chance of an international incident if a bill from Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is approved.

The lawmakers introduced legislation this week (S. 3542) that would ease restrictions for international luggage on flights from Canadian airports that are the equivalent of U.S. airport security.

The change would will make travel between the neighboring countries much easier, the lawmakers said. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Prince's George County, Md., is installing cameras to watch its speed and red-light cameras in suburban Washington to prevent vandalism.

Italian automaker Fiat, which owns U.S. manufacturer Chrysler, is opening a new plant in China.

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee in Florida has been charged with possessing child pornography.

A school bus monitor in New York has been given $700,000 to compensate for being bullied by students.

Your morning transportation speed-read: 

Employees at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport have been accused of stealing 100,000 mini-bottles of liquor. 

A type of rail car that is commonly used to haul hazardous materials appears to have a major design flaw. 

A pair of pedestrians were struck by Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) trains. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has named one of its bomb-sniffing dogs after a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.