Dem demands documents from TSA after scathing security report

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) is demanding documents from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) following a classified report showing that the agency’s security efforts are not up to snuff.

Cummings, ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, urged Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to enforce the panel’s subpoena for documents from the TSA about why the agency took action against a whistleblower.

The panel, under former Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), requested that the TSA turn over the documents in March, after learning that the agency declined to provide the information to the Office of the Special Counsel.

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But the TSA refused to do so, arguing that the agency is protecting attorney-client privilege. It has also declined to make three employees available for transcribed interviews. Chaffetz then issued a subpoena, but the TSA has yet to comply with it.

“In light of the extremely grave classified and unclassified warnings that have been raised … regarding challenges faced by the [TSA] in securing our nation’s airports, I respectfully request that the committee take steps to enforce its subpoena for documents, which TSA has been defying since March,” Cummings wrote in a letter to Gowdy.

Cummings warned that if Gowdy declines the request, he will “be forced” to consider making a motion for the subpoena during a hearing on Wednesday with the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General.