Things were looking bleaker than usual for travelers stuck waiting in the ever-lengthening security lines at America’s airports. With the summer travel season fast approaching, TSA appeared outmanned and overmatched by the onslaught that is your carryon luggage. When 450 travelers got stuck overnight in Chicago’s O’Hare airport because the security lines were so maddeningly slow that the passengers missed their flights, it appeared we had, at last, reached a breaking point. Something had to be done. On Monday, something was. The head of security operations at TSA was removed from his post.
I know what you’re thinking: Great, but how about some extra bag screening machines? I wish I could say that kind of progress was possible. Perhaps someday. Until then you’re going to have to find some solace in TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger announcing Kelly Hoggan, the head of security operations at TSA, will no longer be wreaking havoc on your travel plans. But long lines weren’t the only thing plaguing Hoggan; he faced a grilling from the House Oversight Committee earlier this month for receiving dodgy bonuses over a two-year period despite TSA generally failing both from a service perspective and, even more crucially, from a security perspective.
From NBC News:
Lawmakers accused the TSA of disguising the payment to Kelly Hoggan by doling it out in nine chunks of $10,000 instead of one lump sum — a strategy known as “smurfing.” He received this bonus even as the screeners he supervised failed a test to detect mock explosives and banned weapons… TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger said Hoggan was awarded the bonus under his predecessor and that he’s put in checks to make sure this doesn’t happen again… Homeland Security Inspector John Roth, who appeared with Neffenger before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the payments to Hoggan were “clearly an attempt” to get around the $10,000 bonus limit. They were made over a 13-month period ending in November 2014.
Hoggan will be replaced by his deputy on an interim basis, but it’s hard to believe it will mean any relief for travelers in the short-term. The TSA is sorely understaffed and Congress doesn’t like spending money on the agency. Alas, TSA isn’t the glamour allocation it once was.
