TSA not A-OK
One high-profile firing won’t cure systemic ills
It’s going to take more than the removal of Kelly Hoggan as head of security operations for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to resolve the long security lines at airports across the country.
Mr. Hoggan, reassigned Monday to other duties by TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger, didn’t inspire confidence. He collected $90,000 in bonuses even as undercover agents sneaked fake weapons and explosives past TSA airport checkpoints. Now, amid tougher screening procedures, passengers at some airports are waiting hours to be processed. At Chicago’s O’Hare, 450 passengers missed flights recently — and had to sleep overnight on cots — because the TSA didn’t move them through screening fast enough.
This is federal incompetence at its best, but Mr. Hoggan’s leadership isn’t the sole cause. Although aviation security is a front-burner topic, neither the TSA nor its employees receive adequate support from their executive-branch overseers or Congress. In fact, though it has castigated TSA, Congress is part of the problem. J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing TSA screeners, told a congressional subcommittee that on Thursday. He noted that a tax on airline tickets, intended to support TSA operations, has been diverted for other government purposes.
Meanwhile, he said, the TSA is understaffed and underfunded, with nearly 10 percent fewer full-time employees but 15 percent more passengers than in 2013. Mr. Neffenger told the Houston Chronicle that a lack of resources is holding up implementation of more advanced screening programs. No wonder employee morale is low and turnover, particularly among part-timers, is so high.
As the TSA now rushes to hire more screeners and create an Incident Command Center for monitoring passenger logjams around the nation, it also should consider overhauling its culture from one that punishes whistleblowers, as the agency is said to have done, to one that better supports employees and addresses their concerns.
Mr. Hoggan’s reassignment appears to be little more than a symbolic acknowledgement of systemic problems. Others, inside TSA and without, must improve their own leadership if the agency is to straighten up and fly right.