Obama’s TSA pick clears Senate panel

President Obama’s nominee to take over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was approved by a Senate committee vote Monday evening, setting up a vote of full Senate on his nomination. 

The Senate Homeland Security Committee approved president’s nomination of Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Neffenger to lead the nation’s airport security agency on a voice vote. 

Neffenger is now one step away from taking over the TSA, which has come under fire after a report found its agents failed to find fake bombs and weapons in internal tests at almost all of America’s busiest airports.

{mosads}Neffenger was nominated by the president before the TSA came under fire for the report from the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general that documented a series of undercover stings in which agents tried to pass through security with prohibited items.

Testers were able to make it through airport security with prohibited items 67 of 70 times, including one instance in which a TSA screener failed to find a fake bomb, even after the undercover agent set off a magnetometer. The screener reportedly let the agent through with the fake bomb taped to his back, having missed it during a pat-down.

Lawmakers asked Neffenger in a confirmation hearing a week before Monday evening’s vote how he would handle the failed bomb tests if confirmed. 

“I mean, it’s not my words, but other people have termed what TSA does as security theater, which let me first say there is some deterrent effect and positive effect for those checkpoints, for that theater,” the panel’s chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said. “But do you acknowledge the fact that it’s simply not working?” 

Neffenger responded by saying he supports the TSA’s efforts in recent years to move from a one-sized-fits all approach to airport security to a so-called “risk-based” system that takes into account factors like passenger behavior and encourages programs like the agency’s PreCheck program, where passengers volunteer background information in exchange for possibly expedited screening at airports. 

“I’m a big fan of known-traveler programs,” he said. “I’m a big fan of trusted-traveler programs. I’m a member of Global Entry myself. I did that for a good reason … partly to move myself through the system, but [also] to participate in the system in a way that I thought the system needed me to.” 

Neffenger’s nomination has already been approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. 

If he is confirmed, Neffenger will be the first full-time administrator of the TSA’s since its long-term director, John Pistole, resigned at the beginning of the year.