TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is allowing airline passengers to carry snow globes in their carry-on luggage during the holiday season, the agency said Tuesday.

TSA has updated its security procedures to allow snow globes that "appear to contain less than 3.4 ounces (approximately tennis-ball size)" to be permitted on airplanes. The catch, however, is the entire snow globe, including its base, has to fit in a plastic bag like other liquids are required to.

TSA announced the change at a press conference Tuesday at Ronald Reagan National Airport. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has ratified its labor agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union, the agency said Friday.

The AFGE won the right to represent TSA in an election held in the spring. The union and the airport security agency agreed to a deal in August, and TSA said Friday that the agreement had been ratified by its more than 40,000 employees.

TSA Administrator John Pistole called the ratification a "milestone" for the 10-year-old agency.

"The completion of today's agreement between TSA and AFGE is a milestone in our relationship with our workforce and AFGE," Pistole said in a statement released by TSA. "Together, we will continue to secure our nation's transportation systems and keep the traveling public safe."

The Transportation Security Administration is planning to issue travel tips for airline passengers taking flights over Thanksgiving as Washington turns its focus from the election to the end of the year.

TSA Administrator John Pistole will hold a press conference on Tuesday at the airport that will be used by many lawmakers as they return from the campaign trail for their traditional lame-duck session -- Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Pistole will address changes made to TSA's airport security procedures since last year. Among them is an increase in Pre-Check programs for known travelers, which allow passengers to volunteer personal information in advance in exchange for the possibility of avoiding security lines.   

The House returns to work next week, and will hold several hearings at the committee and subcommittee level on a range of issues, including the outbreak of meningitis in the eastern United States just a few months ago.

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will meet Wednesday to discuss whether the meningitis outbreak could have been prevented. The outbreak, which is responsible for 31 deaths so far this year, has been traced back to tainted steroids made at the New England Compounding Center in Massachusetts.

Miami International Airport led all airports in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) firings that were the result of theft from passengers, according to a media report.

ABC News reported that 29 TSA employees were fired at the Miami airport from 2002 to 2011. New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was second with 27 TSA employee terminations, and Los Angeles International Airport was third with 24 firings.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Las Vegas' McCarren International Airport rounded out the top five of the list with 17 and 15 firings respectively. 

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is attempting to fire 25 of its employees at Newark, N.J.'s Liberty International Airport and suspend 19 others for security lapses.

New Jersey lawmakers have sharply criticized TSA for shutting down Liberty for three hours in August after a passenger was allowed to pass to through a security checkpoint without being screened.

But TSA said Friday that it was making big changes at the airport.

"TSA holds all of its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards and has ... zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace," TSA spokeswoman Lisa Faberstein said in a statement provided to The Hill. "Accountability is an important aspect of our work and TSA takes prompt and appropriate action with any employee who does not follow our procedures and engages in misconduct."

The Transportation Security Administration is being accused of ignoring the request of a passenger who suffers from leukemia to be patted down in private at a Seattle airport.

Washington state resident Michelle Dunaj told Seattle media outlets that TSA employees at the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport removed bandages holding feeding tubes and opened a saline bag she was carrying, according to a report on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website.

Dunaj told the paper that she asked to be inspected in a private area, but her request was denied by the Seattle TSA employees.

"They just said that it was fine; the location we were at was fine," Dunaj said, according to the website.

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.