TSA search

A TSA officer signals to a passenger at a security checkpoint in Washington.

(AP File Photo)

U.S. Rep.

introduced legislation this week that would ban the Transportation Security Administration from performing random searches of ground transportation passengers.

The bill, labeled the Freedom to Travel Act, would prevent the TSA from performing the random searches and instead refocus the administration's security efforts solely to air travel.

"I believe Congress should focus on ensuring that the TSA continues to secure our nation's civil aviation network rather than expanding their scope of operations to activities that are more appropriately handled by law enforcement agencies at various levels of government," the Republican said in a statement Tuesday.

A call placed to the TSA was not returned for comment.

Claiming that the TSA goes above and beyond what most see when traveling through airports, Garrett, whose 5th District includes parts of

, said the legislation is aimed at protecting Americans' Fourth Amendment rights.

"Many Americans are unaware that the reach of the TSA extends far beyond our nation's airports and into every conceivable mode of transportation," he said.

Garrett is especially critical of the TSA's Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response program, known as VIPR. He claims the program has "conducted thousands of unannounced and random sweeps" of various surface transit locations on the grounds that doing so is a deterrent to terrorism.

Garrett has labeled the bill "The Freedom to Travel Act."

"These teams can appear virtually anytime, anywhere to subject citizens to a search of their person and property," Garrett said.

Citing a December 2011 Los Angeles Times article on the issue, Garrett said there is no indication that VIPR or other TSA programs that conduct random searches of ground transportation passengers have done anything to thwart terrorism.

"This is not security, this is security theater," Garrett said.

U.S. Rep.

, a Republican whose 7th Congressional District covers parts of Warren and

counties, supports Garrett's bill.

"I support Congressman Garrett's efforts to focus the TSA on the protection of our nation's civil aviation network," Lance said. "I supported a similar appropriations amendment last month proposed by Congressman Garrett, and I believe some of the TSA's activities are expanding beyond their mission."