Sheila Jackson Lee: “I have the privilege of serving on the Homeland Security Committee, and in that capacity I have the oversight for any…”

“I have the privilege of serving on the Homeland Security Committee, and in that capacity I have the oversight for any number of agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration agency, along with our ranking member and ranking member of our subcommittee and our chairpersons. Let me be very clear: we want America to be secured. But I had the privilege of meeting again with the Administrator of TSA, and as we watched incidents in Arizona and Chicago, I am very sure that as we build the TSOs and as we work to correct these issues, we could not have a better frontline defense for protecting America. As I have traveled to airports across the Nation and watched civilians or citizens, passengers traveling through, I have seen a smile and a recognition of how important TSOs are. It is important to make sure that equipment works, and it is more important to make sure that we have the right kind of staffing. We are almost 3,000 to 4,000 short of the number of TSOs that we need. It is also important that we recognize that a professional Federal staff is very important, similar to the many other law enforcement agencies that we have. Privatization is not the answer, but efficiency, expediency, good equipment, and training is. I believe we are moving forward to make sure that we have that kind of trained force to secure the American people and secure the Nation's airports. ____________________”