Book Description

In this testimony, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) addresses the efforts Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has taken or planned to strengthen aviation security, and the challenges that remain, in three key areas: airline passenger prescreening, airline passenger and checked baggage screening, and air cargo screening. These comments are based on issued GAO reports and testimonies and their preliminary observations from ongoing work on the TSA's passenger checkpoint screening procedures and technologies, and staffing standards for Transportation Security Officers (TSO). To implement TSA's efforts to secure the commercial aviation system, TSA funding related to aviation security has totaled about $20 billion since fiscal year 2004. Other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components, such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Science and Technology Directorate (S & T), also play roles in securing commercial aviation. In prior reports, GAO has made numerous recommendations designed to strengthen aviation security, including recommendations related to passenger prescreening, passenger and checked baggage screening, and air cargo security. TSA has generally agreed with our recommendations.