Department of Homeland Security, Assistant Secretary, Transportation Security Administration

Department/Agency: Department of Homeland Security

Position:

Assistant Secretary, Transportation Security Administration

Executive Schedule: Executive Level III - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

Ensure the security of U.S. airports and airline travel
Solely responsible for screenings passengers and baggage at 450 airports
Jointly responsible with other law enforcement agencies for security of rail travel and mass transit
Inspect rail cars and protect other transportation systems
Run the Air Marshal Service
Oversee pilots' right to carry arms in the cockpit

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

Transportation management expertise
Law enforcement background or work law enforcement agencies
Oversight of complex, multi-faceted organization

Insight:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that was rushed through Congress in November 2001, two months after 19 terrorists hijacked and crashed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Originally part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, TSA became a cornerstone of the newly created Department of Homeland Security a year later. The agency is responsible for security in all modes of transportation.Prior to the creation of TSA, security screening was operated by private companies under contract to airport owners and individual airlines. Forty-three thousand of TSA's 50,000 employees are airport screeners.

The TSA, with a $7 billion budget, is solely responsible for screening passengers and their baggage at 450 airports across the country. It also stands in the front lines of protecting America's other passenger and commercial transit in the air, on rail, and on the roads. It works closely with law enforcement personnel from across the federal government and with state and local police. The agency web site describes the TSA role this way: "We are 43,000 security officers, inspectors, directors, air marshals and managers who protect the nation's transportation systems so you and your family can travel safely. We look for bombs at checkpoints in airports, we inspect rail cars, we patrol subways with our law enforcement partners, and we work to make all modes of transportation safe."

In a July 2008 speech at a conference on Transportation and Terrorism, Edmund "Kim" Hawley, only the second TSA administrator, said, "For us, terrorism is not a theoretical discussion; it is not a policy debate. It is reality in real time." Hawley, an attorney and longtime transportation executive, went on:

"Here are the realities today:

Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorists have everything they need to conduct multiple, sophisticated attacks: resources, time, technical capacity, and people, including western operatives with clean backgrounds.
Transportation targets remain at or near the center of their bulls-eye.
For us to stop them, teamwork is the number one success factor.
Teamwork, partnership, sharing - up, down and across organizations is a requirement.

"Terrorists know no boundaries; terrorists obey no rules. To them, borders represent opportunities to exploit gaps between countries or organizations; rules restrict only us. To terrorists, teamwork is their worst nightmare. And that is what we're giving them."

Hawley said TSA was taking steps to reduce the inconvenience to ordinary travelers. A new system called Secure Flight that will be operational in 2009 is supposed to clear up the problem of citizens being delayed or prevented from flying because their name is the same or similar to one of the thousands on the government's terrorist watch list. Hawley called counterterrorism "a team activity" and urged the public to be both vigilant and patient. "Time, all too often in our country, has allowed many to forget and move on. Time, for the terrorist, is to prepare and wait for the perfect moment to attack...." he warned. What terrorists "don't know, what they cannot predict, is the level of intensity they face in America's front-line against terror. We are using this time to go on offense. We are using this time to train, to equip ... (and) be on offense."

When Hawley was confirmed in 2005, he dispensed with having a photograph taken to hang in TSA offices nationwide alongside the customary photos of the president and the secretary of homeland security. Instead he had mirrors sent out to TSA field offices along with these instructions: "When our airport screeners look in the mirror, they will see who is important, who can make a difference, the person without whom we can't succeed." Hawley's gesture became the basis for an agency morale drive called I Am TSA.

Improving TSA morale and tightening security for the nation's airports and other modes of transportation will remain a vital task for the Obama administration. TSA was created in a matter of months after the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 terrorists were able to walk through airport security in Boston and Washington with box knives they used to overcome the pilots and turn commercial airliners into weapons of mass destruction. In ratcheting up airport security, TSA screeners imposed new levels of scrutiny that subject every traveler - from infants to elders in wheelchairs - to often exacting checks by TSA's Transportation Security Officers. More recently, a ban on taking more than three ounces of liquids through the checkpoint has caused consternation and contributed to lines never before experienced at U.S. airports. Still, government auditors and even the news media have found persistent flaws in the screening procedures. Screeners have failed a number of staged tests in which they failed to identify potentially dangerous items sent through security checkpoints.

That stringent ban on carry-on liquids and gels was imposed after British and U.S. authorities revealed they had thwarted attempts to sneak liquid explosives onto U.S.-bound flights in Summer 2006. The restrictions later were relaxed to allow such items as toothpaste, shaving cream, baby formula and other liquids to be brought on board so long as they fit in a quart-sized bag and were no more than three ounces. These restrictions remain a bone of contention. (Hawley retains a sense of humor about this. When a journalist arrived at TSA headquarters to conduct an interview for The Atlantic magazine, the administrator greeted him with a quip: "Do you want three ounces of water?")

The Federal Air Marshal Service that was created in the late 1960s in response to a rash of hijackings to Cuba was one of the first programs switched to the new TSA, but it was then made part of a sister agency, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in late 2003. In 2006 the Air Marshall program was transferred back to TSA. The TSA also oversees the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, which gives pilots the right to arm themselves to better safeguard planes from hijackers. That program, which was ordered by Congress, has not been without controversy. Pilots pushed for the law; critics argued unsuccessfully that the presence of fully loaded firearms on airplanes, regardless of whether a pilot had training, poses an unnecessary risk to pilots, flight attendants, and passengers alike. There have been no problems, although a gun belonging to a U.S. Airways pilot accidentally discharged in March 2008 as his plane was approaching a landing in Charlotte, N.C.

The challenge for the next TSA administrator will remain to keep making travel and commerce safer for the American public, whether their journey takes place by air, on rail or by bus and subway car.

Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:

Secretary
Deputy Secretary
Office of the Inspector General
Commissioner, Bureau of Customs & Border Protection
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Immigration & Customs Enforcement
Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Key Relationships – Within the Government:

Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Transportation
FAA Associate Administrator for Airports, Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety, Assistant Administrator for International Aviation, and Assistant Administrator for Aviation Policy Planning & Environment
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Administrator and Executive Director
Federal Railroad Administration Administrator and Deputy Administrator
Director, FRA Office of Safety, Hazardous Materials Division
Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Administrator and Deputy Administrator
Director, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Department of Defense
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, Department of Justice

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

International Air Transport Association (IATA)
International Airline Passengers Association (IAPA)
International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA)
National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)
American Public Transit Association (APTA)
Association of American Railroads (AAR)
Other carriers including bus companies

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Current Position Profile:
1. John S. Pistole (Confirmed: June 25, 2010). Former FBI Deputy Director.

Recent Position Profiles:

2. Gale D. Rossides (Acting-2010). Former Associate Administrator/Chief Support Systems Officer, TSA. Former Senior advisor to the Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Management for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Former Director of all law enforcement, regulatory and leadership training, ATF. Former Member of Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's (FLETC) Board of Directors for state and local law enforcement training.

3. Edmund "Kip" Hawley, J.D. (2005- ). Attorney, former executive of technology and transportation companies. Former CEO, Skyway Freight Systems, and vice president of reengineering, Union Pacific Railroad. Department of Transportation deputy and governmental affairs official in the Reagan administration.

4. David Stone, M.A., M.S. (2003-2005). Retired Navy rear admiral. First TSA Federal Security Director for Los Angeles International Airport. Commanded NATO naval forces in Adriatic during Kosovo conflict. Commanded Destroyer Squadron Fifty in Bahrain. Deputy director of surface warfare and director of environmental protection for the Chief of Naval Operations. Chief of Staff to Commander, Sixth Fleet.