T.S.A. Lapses, Retaliation and Bonuses Are Investigated by House Panel

WASHINGTON — A congressional committee is investigating allegations that the agency in charge of airport security retaliated against employees who reported security lapses and awarded bonuses to supervisors who ignored their warnings.

The agency, the Transportation Security Administration, has until March 4 to provide the House Oversight Committee with documents detailing how it awards bonuses to top agency officials.

The investigation comes after Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, sent documents to the committee that he said indicated that the top supervisors who ignored warnings about security lapses were awarded bonuses.

One top official in charge of security for the agency received more than $70,000 in bonuses in a three-year period despite a leaked audit that showed screeners failed to detect investigators with fake weapons and bombs going through security lines. The audit showed that screeners failed to detect the weapons 95 percent of the time.

Mr. Rhoades said the agency tried to reassign employees like him who reported the lapses.

“The committee’s review of documents provided by T.S.A., and information provided by current and former T.S.A. employees, gave rise to concerns that T.S.A.’s highly discretionary compensation practices are vulnerable to abuse,” Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and chairman of the oversight committee, wrote in a letter to the agency.

In a written statement, the agency said it was working to provide additional information to the committee. “T.S.A. takes any allegations of improper conduct seriously and is committed to transparency and accountability,” the agency said.

Mr. Rhoades is not the only whistle-blower to come forward. On Friday, a former deputy assistant administrator for the T.S.A.’s office of intelligence and analysis in Washington filed a lawsuit against the agency saying he was demoted and reassigned after objecting to gender discrimination and sexually offensive comments made by male employees in the agency’s intelligence office.

In his lawsuit, Mark A. Livingston, a disabled Marine Corps veteran with numerous awards from the T.S.A., said he reported the behavior to top managers who failed to take action. Instead, he said he was harassed and moved into another job.

Mr. Rhoades, a former Army Ranger, reported to T.S.A. headquarters what he said were security lapses at his airport, such as security tags not being placed on bags to indicate that they had been screened.

In response, he said, the T.S.A. tried to transfer him to an airport in Tampa, Fla. He filed a complaint with the United States Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that protects federal employees from reprisal, and the agency sided with him, blocking the relocation. The investigation is pending.

“I was going through a divorce and was not going to give up custody of my kid,” he said. “They knew they couldn’t fire me. They were hoping that the relocation would make me quit.”

The T.S.A. denied that the move was punitive. But an internal memo dated Jan. 23, 2015, showed that supervisors had recommended reassigning him for, among other things, his “contacts and loyalty” to previous T.S.A. leadership at the airport.

The T.S.A. pointed to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general that found “no violations of law or policy” in bonus payments to agency executives in 2013 and 2014.

The inspector general’s office recommended changes to the way the agency awarded bonuses, and those changes have been made, including limiting bonuses to $10,000 annually.

Rebecca Roering, also an assistant security director, disclosed that Sara Jane Olson, a 1970s radical convicted of plotting to kill Los Angeles police officers by bombing their squad cars, was allowed to use an expedited inspection lane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport even though a screener identified her. As a felon, Ms. Olson was not eligible to use the expedited lane, which allows verified passengers to skip taking off their shoes and removing liquids from their bags. A supervisor overruled the screener.

Ms. Roering told members of Congress that agency officials targeted her for suspension even though an investigation by Homeland Security’s inspector general substantiated her concerns. The Office of Special Counsel is investigating the incident to determine whether the suspension was issued because of Ms. Roering’s whistle-blowing.

Kenneth S. Kasprisin, a former interim director of the T.S.A., denounced “a toxic culture from top to bottom.” He said the problems extended beyond Minnesota.

Other senior executives have also filed lawsuits claiming illegal and discriminatory practices at the T.S.A.

The congressional inquiry is the latest in a series of issues facing the T.S.A. Morale remains low, and the agency has begun retraining its work force after the security lapses were reported.

Mr. Rhoades said his complaints were a last resort because senior officials at the T.S.A. and the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general had failed to act.