The uproar over new TSA screening procedures expanded from airport checkpoints to Capitol Hill on Monday, as the Democratic and Republican House caucuses convened a rare House-wide staff briefing on the new procedures this morning in the Capitol basement, I report in a piece tonight:.

The briefing came as a new Washington Post poll shows that half the American public opposes the controversial enhanced pat-downs, the paper reported Monday. The poll also showed that almost two-thirds of Americans — down from 80 percent earlier this month according to another poll the administration has widely cited to defend the policy — support the use of digital scanning machines at airports.



The enhanced pat-downs that have sparked passenger complaints are used as secondary screening as part of a new TSA policy that went into place earlier this month. ...



[A House staffer who attended the briefing] said that several House staffers were so uncomfortable they averted their eyes when the TSA demonstrated an enhanced pat-down in the room of 200 people.



“The dumbest part: They did two pat-down demonstrations — male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch that people were averting their eyes.”



“They shot themselves in the foot,” the staffer continued.



Obama administration and TSA officials have been trying to downplay public horror stories that have exploded on the Internet and in the media in the past few days at the controversial screening procedures, suggesting that some of them are exaggerated or even fabricated. ...



But TSA officials have not explained why an ABC News producer reports that a TSA officer put her hands inside her underwear and touched her extensively at Newark Airport on Sunday in an experience the producer called demeaning and inappropriate.



"The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around," ABC producer Carolyn Durand told ABC. "It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate."



TSA Administrator John Pistole told ABC that that incident should not have happened. ...



A TSA official contacted after the report said they were trying to look into the incident but were having a hard time because the ABC employee had not lodged a formal complaint. ....

Here's the whole piece.

A Department of Homeland Security official writes that less than 3 percent of travelers get the controversial aggressive pat-downs.

According to one Atlanta Journal Constitution report this week, there are some 24 million people expected to fly in American airports over Thanksgiving week. So 3 percent of 24 million is 720,000 aggressive pat-downs in the U.S. this week, if my math is holding up.

That is more than every resident of Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: The TSA offers a similar briefing on aviation security measures for Senate and House staffers Tuesday:

Purpose: Briefing by senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security for House and Senate staff to discuss aviation travel security measures, including a discussion of the current threat environment, the need for AIT (Advanced Imaging Technology) and pat-downs. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis will conduct a Threat Briefing (at unclass level) and the TSA will discuss AIT machines and pat-down security measures, including a demo of the pat-down. Officials will also be able to answer questions about the safety of AIT machines, the frequency of the pat-down and other questions that members have received from constituents and provide travel tips for constituents. The purpose of this briefing is to educate staff and provide information to help staff answer calls they are receiving from constituents.



This briefing is open to LAs handling the issue and is sensitive but unclassified.



Participants:

DHS Undersecretary for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis: Dawn Scalisi

TSA Assistant Administrator, Office of Security Operations: Lee Kair

TSA Assistant Administrator, Office of Security Technology: Robin Kane