Story ID: 
Congressional Probe Calls TSA ‘Mismanaged Failure’
By: AIN Staff
Caption: The Transportation Security Administration suffers from bureaucratic morass and mismanagement, according to a staff report from two congressional committee
Word Count: 184
The Transportation Security Administration suffers from bureaucratic morass and mismanagement, according to a staff report from two congressional committees. The review of the TSA’s performance was conducted by Republican investigative staff of the House Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure and Oversight and Government Reform. “The TSA has strayed from its security mission and mushroomed into a top-heavy bureaucracy that includes 3,986 headquarters staff, making $103,852 per year on average, and 9,656 administrators in the field,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the Transportation Committee that wrote the initial law creating the TSA. “Unfortunately, over the past 10 years the agency has spent $57 billion on numerous operational and technology failures.” In public speeches, Mica calls TSA “my bastard child” and does not disguise his enmity toward the current iteration of the TSA. He also wants to remove it from the Department of Homeland Security and relocate it to the Department of Transportation. Yesterday’s report said the House Transportation Committee is currently preparing new legislation to reform the TSA in accordance with the findings in the report, including an audit by a “qualified outside organization.”