Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who chairs of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee and who requested the GAO report, argued that the findings point to widespread employee misconduct within TSA, noting GAO’s findings that employee misconduct increased over 26 percent in the past three years.
"Not only has TSA failed to properly recruit, train and administer screening personnel, they have been unable to deal with misconduct, including the over 9,600 incidents in the last three years," said Mica, who is a leading advocate of privatizing screening operations.
"It is time to reassess TSA’s role in the aviation screening process and return the agency to security and intelligence responsibilities and remove them from the personnel and human resources businesses at which they are failing," he added.
The president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers, contends that Mica and other TSA critics are blowing the report out of proportion, noting that the report shows that a relatively small percentage – around 5 percent – of the 45,000 TSA workforce has been involved in employee misconduct.
J. David Cox Sr. argued that the report merely illustrates a respect for due process, as TSA is required to evaluate evidence along with misconduct charges and if warranted, ensure discipline is consonant with an offense.
"Efforts to sensationalize these kinds of routine management functions in order to make the case for the return of the failed, for-profit model of airport screening are appalling and irresponsible," Cox stated.
