Home Information Sharing & Analysis Prevention & Protection Preparedness & Response Research Commerce & Trade Travel Security & Procedures Immigration
About the Department Open for Business Press Room
Current National Threat Level is elevated

The threat level in the airline sector is High or Orange. Read more.

Homeland Security 5 Year Anniversary 2003 - 2008, One Team, One Mission Securing the Homeland

Assistant Secretary/Administrator, Transportation Security Administration: Kip Hawley

Assistant Secretary/Administrator, Transportation Security Administration: Kip Hawley

President Bush nominated Kip Hawley to be Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on May 6, 2005 and he was sworn in on July 27, 2005. In this role Hawley has carried out Secretary Chertoff's risk-based approach to security in the transportation sector.

Hawley's tenure at TSA has included a strong focus on workforce initiatives and enhancements. These initiatives include career progression, increased benefits for part-time employees, improved pay for performance incentives, and giving frontline employees a voice in TSA decision making through a national employee advisory council and a web-based tool to collect ideas to improve the workplace.

Today improvised explosive devices are the number one threat to the transportation sector. Hawley has moved the organization to increase the focus on Improvised Explosive Device detection. Each Transportation Security Officer has completed rigorous training in IED detection and regularly receives recurrent explosives detection training.

This year TSA has announced Checkpoint Evolution, the most significant change to passenger screening since 9/11 and even since the checkpoint was first established in the 1970s, in an effort to calm down the checkpoint environment enabling security officers to increase passenger interaction. This will result in heightened security and a better experience for travelers. A chaotic, noisy, congested checkpoint is a security nightmare because it makes it easier for the person intending to do harm to hide.

Hawley returned to government from a career in technology and transportation where he worked for companies including Arzoon, Skyway and Union Pacific. After the terror attacks of 2001, he was part of the standup of TSA when it was formed in 2001 as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He previously worked in the Administration of President Ronald Reagan and he was appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush to the National Commission on Intermodal Transportation.

Hawley earned a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia Law School and a B.A. from Brown University.

This page was last reviewed/modified on July 9, 2008.