John Katko

If the Cuban Government would disallow Federal air marshals on their flights to and from the United States to Cuba, would that be a deal-killer for Homeland Security?

Does that give you any concern?

Another thing that is a major concern to me is that Cuban visas are showing up in the Middle East.

I would strongly urge you that if you really are serious about the insider threat and you are very serious about keeping the skies safe, that you look at with a very focused eye on what is going on in Cuba before you open up those airports.

I urge you in the strongest words possible, based on everything I know, that it is a very serious security issue.

I am vitally concerned about developing facts with respect to opening the airports in Cuba.

It raised a specter that we have heard again and again, about TSA continually using security classifications to avoid having public discussions about certain things that may be unpleasant for them to discuss in public.

There have been some problems. When the front-line people see those problems I think that impacts negatively the morale issue.

When someone is getting $60- or $70,000 in bonuses for poor performance, that is not a good signal to send.

Of course, no one wants to do that, but we also have a solemn responsibility to protect the American public.

At no time during that hearing, at no time during that meeting rather, did anyone from TSA raise any concerns about any of the information that they were discussing being of a Sensitive, Secure, Confidential, Secret nature.

Such a culture currently does not exist within TSA.

Oversight work like what we are doing today is what the American people expect and demand of the representatives in Congress.

I am particularly invested in and concerned about ensuring that the good men and women who protect our Nation's critical transportation systems every day are not only provided with the resources they need, but are also surrounded by an…

Congress has had to step in numerous times when the agency has failed to appropriately manage its personnel.

I do applaud the efforts of the TSA front-line workers, the officers.

We cannot stand--good performance then can be better.

Our Nation has experienced a tragedy for sure. This past weekend's terrorist attack in Orlando is just the latest in an increasingly long list of homegrown violent extremist attacks. Our Nation is not only grieving the loss of 49 innocent…

We have all seen, heard about, or even experienced for ourselves the recent crisis of wait times at TSA checkpoints at airports across this great Nation. With record passenger volumes, inefficient staffing models, and collaboration…

When we can act like this in a collaborative manner, that is when Congress really works.

I think a lot of times people look at Congress and say, Congress is broken, nothing gets done, they are not listening to us.

If there is some money that is reallocated, if that is the right term, from other parts of TSA to staffing, would it make sense to take a lot of these individuals that are part-time now and make them full-time?

One of the things we want to do in this bill is to untie their hands to some extent from an administrative standpoint.

I would also like to thank you for holding this hearing.

I would like to thank Christina Callahan for that.