Banned items typically get past airport screeners

More than two years after the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration lost his job over security deficiencies at the nation’s airports, a new inspector general’s report indicates that the problems have continued.

The report on covert testing by the Office of Inspector General was delivered Tuesday in a classified briefing before the House Committee on Homeland Security. It found that in about eight of 10 tests, people from the office successfully evaded airport screeners while carrying banned items.

“We take the OIG’s findings very seriously and are implementing measures that will improve screening effectiveness at checkpoints,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “We are focused on staying ahead of a dynamic threat to aviation with continued investment in the workforce, enhanced procedures and new technologies.”

In June 2015, acting TSA head Melvin Carraway was reassigned after reports emerged that covert agents from the inspector general’s office had been able to penetrate TSA checkpoints on 67 occasions while carrying simulated bombs or illegal weapons. Though the TSA catches scores of people with weapons, the inspector general’s report in 2015 said that operatives from the office penetrated airport security in about 95 percent of their attempts.

The TSA had been under Carraway’s interim direction after former administrator John S. Pistole stepped down to take a college presidency and before Peter Neffenger, appointed by President Barack Obama, was confirmed.

Pekoske, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, was appointed to head the TSA by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in August. Pekoske said the TSA itself conducted “tens of thousands” of internal tests last year and planned a similar number this year.