Washington, DC – U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republican Leader, congratulated new TSA Administrator John Pistole and pledged to work with him to get the bloated bureaucracy back on track. 

The Senate approved Mr. Pistole’s nomination as Administrator and Assistant Secretary of the Transportation Security Administration earlier today.

“I am pleased that after a year and half, an Administrator will finally be in place to provide critical leadership to this rudderless agency,” Mica said.  “It is difficult enough to get things done in a federal agency when someone is in charge, but it is nearly impossible in a headless bureaucracy of 60,000.

“Mr. Pistole will take over a top heavy TSA, with more than 7,000 supervisors in the field and 3,526 staff at headquarters where the average salary tops $106,000. 

“While we are safer than we were before 9/11, TSA’s performance must be improved.  Recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports highlight just the latest examples of the agency’s failures.  In May, GAO found that TSA completely bungled the development and deployment of a behavior detection program for the nation’s airports.  GAO’s most recent report outlines TSA’s poor performance in all modes of transportation.  

“Earlier airport screening penetration tests have repeatedly demonstrated TSA’s failure to detect threats to our aviation system.  Unfortunately, penetration testing continues to show that even with new screening technology and the behavior detection program, the aviation screening system is not working.

“Transportation remains a high-risk terrorism target.  I do not believe TSA can function effectively as the nation’s security regulator, administrator and operator – it cannot and should not do it all.  I urge the new Administrator to promptly begin a reevaluation and reorganization of this unwieldy and poorly performing bureaucracy.  I look forward to sitting down with him to discuss these challenges and I pledge to work with him to get this out of control agency back on track.”
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Letter to New TSA Administrator