Price Statement on TSA 2015 Budget Request
Administrator Pistole, thank you for joining us this morning to discuss the Transportation Security Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2015. Your agency has a uniquely difficult task: broadly securing the transportation sector, including not only aviation, but also rail, mass transit, highways, and pipelines.
Most people associate TSA primarily with aviation security and, with it, occasionally long lines and other inconveniences. I travel a lot by air between my district in North Carolina and the Capital, so I’ve experienced my fair share of those delays over the years. But TSA’s work is vital to the security of the traveling public, and we can thank you and your employees for protecting us for more than a decade from a repeat of the kind of attack we experienced on September 11th. Although we don’t yet know what happened aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the strong likelihood that it was intentionally diverted should remind us that threats to aviation have not gone away, and that taking down a commercial aircraft is still a primary goal of al Qaeda and its affiliates.
So perhaps we can interpret the traveling public’s focus on screening inconveniences as a sign that TSA is doing a good job overall in carrying out its important mission: if travelers are focusing on the hassle of taking off their shoes, it is in part because we aren’t worried about a threat to the aircraft we are about to board.
That is not to say that there isn’t room for improvement; it’s clear that there is. We can do more to minimize delays and other inconveniences for the traveling public through the kind of risk-based security strategies that TSA has begun to employ over the last few years. Through improved screening processes and technologies and by expediting the screening of low-risk travelers, TSA has made great strides to improve the traveler experience while more strategically targeting resources to address risk, and I know you plan to continue further in that direction.
Most of the TSA workforce is performing admirably in what is a very difficult, underappreciated, often strenuous, and—as was tragically confirmed last November with the shooting death of TSO Gerardo Hernandez — dangerous occupation. We owe them our thanks for their service.
We do still hear about inappropriate behavior by some TSOs, however. And because of the difficult nature of the job, the agency has at times struggled to keep more experienced and effective TSOs. So I appreciate the efforts you have made to develop career paths in the agency and improve employee training and morale. Providing initial collective bargaining rights to the screener workforce was a good decision on your part that should help the agency in this regard. I hope you will continue your efforts to boost employee morale, retention, and professionalism through the collective bargaining process.
I am pleased that the fiscal year 2015 request projects a savings of $100 million associated with your risk-based efforts, allowing TSA to absorb personnel reductions through attrition.
All told, TSA’s efficiency efforts would result in net programmatic savings of nearly $133 million next year, including almost 2,000 fewer positions, which more than offsets required inflationary increases in next year’s budget, for a net savings of around $60 million, or around one percent compared to your current year budget. Unfortunately, the budget also proposes user fee increases as offsetting receipts to the tune of $615 million. Setting aside any debate on the fee proposals themselves, unless those fee changes are authorized, this Subcommittee is stuck facing a $615 million hole that we will have to fill from other places in the Department.
We will need to look carefully at your proposed budget, both to fully understand the risk-based efficiencies it includes, and to look for any other ways of finding savings while still remaining vigilant in protecting the traveling public. I look forward to your testimony and to a good discussion this morning.