The House unanimously approved legislation on Wednesday led by U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY) to improve airport security and eliminate threats through better employee screening.
Katko introduced the Aviation Employee Screening and Security Enhancement Act after leading the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Protective Security’s two-year investigation into insider threats to airports across the country.
“There remain serious vulnerabilities and gaps in employee screening at airports nationwide,” Katko, the chairman of the subcommittee, said. “Frighteningly, we have seen multiple examples of aviation workers with access to secure areas of airports being involved in serious criminal activities, including terror plotting, after being radicalized.”
The bill would implement reforms to key Transportation Security Administration (TSA) programs. It aims to enhance employee-vetting requirements, improve procedures governing the way airports issue security credentials and reform TSA’s employee screening operations to be more targeted and effective. It will also provide policymakers with critical data relating to the cost and feasibility of providing full employee screening at domestic airports, Katko said.
Katko released a report in February on behalf of the subcommittee that outlined vulnerabilities and gaps in airport employee screening processes. Days after the release of that report, 12 current and former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and airport employees were indicted for smuggling about 20 tons of cocaine through TSA security systems at a Puerto Rico airport between 1998 and 2016.
“We cannot allow these lapses in security to continue placing the traveling public at risk,” Katko said. “After a number of insider threat-related attacks at airport overseas, along with plots here in the United States, it is essential that we act on this legislation.”
The February report identified inconsistencies in how airport and air carrier security officials educate credentialed employees, conflicts between industry and government stakeholders, and that a majority of airports across the nation do not have full employee screening at secure access points.
“Subcommittee Chairman John Katko has made great strides in improving aviation security and TSA, and his leadership on this important national security issue has been pivotal in securing key reforms,” U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said.
“While more needs to be done to diminish threats facing our country’s aviation sector, I am proud of the work this committee continues to do to better eliminate insider threats,” McCaul added.