The TSA is facing uncertainty about what its role is and how to fulfill it. TSA takes one hit after another

TSA’s got a groping problem — physically and philosophically.

In the past year, a former Miss America, a wrinkled Texas congressman and an angel-faced 4-year-old have accused Transportation Security Administration agents of harassing them.


As if that wasn’t enough, the agency’s damaged brand took another hit last week when federal officials arrested two former and two current TSA screeners for allegedly sneaking drugs through the Los Angeles International Airport.

It’s no wonder the most harrowing part of the journey is the line to the plane.

These latest troubles reveal the lingering uncertainty about TSA’s role and how to keep the country safe without violating the public’s privates.

“I’m beginning to think this is a cultural issue because we’re seeing the misconduct across the country,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said. “Every member of Congress is hearing from people in their districts who have been offended by some of the TSA practices.”

She believes TSA has become more powerful than Congress intended when it created the agency following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. And, Blackburn said, she’s tired of TSA agents impersonating cops. Her bill, the STRIP Act, would prohibit screeners from wearing badges or dressing like policemen.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) rolled out the political guillotine Friday, calling for the head of TSA Chief John Pistole.

The agency defended its mission and its methods.

“TSA has a responsibility to screen every passenger and their luggage, and pat-downs are an important tool that helps TSA detect hidden and dangerous items such as explosives,” agency spokesman Kawika Riley told POLITICO. Over a recent six-month period, TSA screened more than 300 million passengers and received fewer than 650 complaints related to pat-downs, according to Riley. “This averages out to less than one complaint for every 460,000 passengers.”

He said the screeners’ uniforms — introduced in 2008 — are “more reflective of the critical nature of their work and of the high standards they uphold.”

The partisan rub is a classic fight over the size and scope of government: Republicans want to shrink the agency and its agents’ authority, while Democrats tend to favor bolstering TSA by professionalizing its ranks.

Republicans on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee blasted TSA for mission creep in a report released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the law creating the agency.

“Since its inception, TSA has lost its focus on transportation security,” the report concluded. “Instead, it has grown into an enormous, inflexible and distracted bureaucracy, more concerned with human resource management and consolidating power, and acting reactively instead of proactively.”

There’s firsthand knowledge, too.

Rep. Francisco Canseco (R-Texas) last week said he’s twice had run-ins with TSA, including one in which he slapped an agent’s hand away after it ended up in his groin. Canseco was briefly accused of assaulting the TSA screener.

“I was pressed hard and it hurt. I reacted,” he told POLITICO. “Things have to change, and how they do things needs to be done in a very, very effective way if we’re going to protect our country. But certainly not this ridiculous way, where they check every nook and cranny. … What on earth is a U.S. congressman going to do on a plane? Pull out a gun and shoot everybody?”

While the harshest criticism comes from the libertarian wing of the Republican Party, it’s clear both sides have issues with TSA.

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have written a bill that would hire passenger advocates to help travelers deal with TSA.

“These latest incidents offer further proof that passengers need an onsite point of contact who they can bring grievances to and who can advocate on their behalf when they feel they are being treated unfairly or inappropriately, “ Schumer said in unveiling his passenger-advocacy bill. “Going through security at our nation’s airports should not be a humiliating or degrading experience.”

Collins has a bipartisan bill that would require TSA to study the health effects of its backscatter X-ray machines. And a Democratic congresswoman told POLITICO she’s so concerned about radiation from the machines that she opts for pat-downs when she’s at the airport — regardless of the possibility of a personal invasion.

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who caucuses with Democrats, indicated that while he’s bothered by TSA’s “mistakes,” he’s not planning to make any big changes to the agency.

“We want to set a standard of zero tolerance for those mistakes, and they haven’t hit it yet,” Lieberman said.

For all the complaints, TSA supporters like to remind critics that Sept. 11 hasn’t happened again.

“We’re at war,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “We need to make ourselves safe.”

And more than most agencies, its flaws are on full display.

“This is one of the most visible components of the federal apparatus,” said Stephen Lord, director of Homeland Security and Justice Issues for the Government Accountability Office and author of numerous reports on TSA.

“Think about it, there are 450 airports, you’ve got a screening workforce of 50,000 and close to 2 million passengers a day. As much training as you give them, it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “All it takes is one small incident to escalate and tarnish its reputation.”

His team has just launched a six-month study comparing the effectiveness of private security firms to the TSA.

That’s an issue sure to catch fire with Republican critics of TSA, as many would like to see some of its functions privatized to save money.

Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, the chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that sets TSA funding, has praised TSA for talking about moving toward a more risk-based screening system — but called for more action on that front. He also has criticized TSA — and the White House — for proposing unrealistic travel fees in budget requests.

“Ultimately TSA must find a way to balance persistent and evolving national security threats with the need for free flow of trade and people and it must be done in a fiscally responsible way, no more smoke-and-mirror ‘savings,’” Aderholt said at a hearing this year.

Some think the topic just shouldn’t be touched.

Kathryn A. Wolfe contributed to this report.