Homeland Security lambasts TSA for "layers of security simply missing"

The floor just keeps dropping further and further out from under the Transportation Security Administration after a scathing report this summer from Homeland Security revealed that the airport security organization had an almost unbelievable 95% failure rate during a months-long investigation and series of undercover tests. Now, Homeland Security has testified before Congress that the agents tasked with keeping us safe are continuing to fail at the job.

Describing the most recent round of covert testing across eight of our nation’s airports, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth told the Senate Committee on Appropriations’ subcommittee on homeland security:

“The failures included failures in the technology, in TSA procedures, and in human error. We found layers of security simply missing. It would be misleading to minimize the rigor of our testing, or to imply that our testing was not an accurate reflection of the effectiveness of the totality of aviation security.”

While specifics of the most recent inspection are still classified as secret, Roth compared the results in question with inspections from 2014, 2012 and 2011, and demonstrated a pattern of failure. Roth said that the lapses in security that his agents experienced were consistent across all of the airports inspected.

Perhaps the only good news is that Roth admits that the attitude of the TSA’s highest decision-makers has improved to finally accept, admit and hopefully improve upon the chronic failures within its network. Still, after all too recent incidents of agents stealing from travelers andharassing a transgender passenger, there is clearly a long way to go in terms of improvement.

You can read Inspector Roth’s entire testimony before Congress HERE.