TSA Oversight Part III: Effective Security or Security Theater?

1:30pm on Monday, March 26, 2012 in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

The work of our two Committees has documented a recurring pattern of mismanagement and waste at the Transportation Security Administration.  Add to this an unending string of video clips, photographs and news reports about inappropriate, clumsy and even illogical searches and screenings by TSA agents.  Americans are right to demand answers from TSA about the return on investment of their tax dollars.
 
Monday’s joint Committee hearing represents yet another opportunity for TSA to try to explain why Americans are subjected to procedures that sometimes appear to defy logic and why the agency continues on a security system procurement binge.  The committee will be asking questions about the effectiveness of five major security initiatives that together represent billions dollars of government spending.  Understanding the cost for security programs as well as their benefits will help address the question: is it security theater or effective security?