TSA: Mission Creep Meets Waste

Mass media regularly feeds on the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)'s checkered past, and for good reason. According to a recent ABC News exclusive, “an internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation's busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials.” This followed the leak of an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general's report indicating that TSA agents failed to detect 67 out of 70 threats presented by red team members. This isn't an isolated problem at the TSA, as we'll see. DHS secretary Jeh Johnson's response was to announce some insubstantial changes and re-assign the TSA director. As is the way with government, oversight of the internal investigation and change process will fall to a team of DHS and TSA insiders, as these are the tools that bureaucrats use to diffuse criticism or cover up problems.