House Members Challenge TSA Policy on Pat Downs, X-Ray Technology – CQ Homeland Security
At a time when the Transportation Security Administration’s use of “enhanced pat downs” is coming under increasing public fire, the Democratic leadership of one House committee and GOP leadership of another are asking the agency to reconsider the practice.
“While we agree that security measures should be enhanced in the wake of recent attempted terrorist attacks on the aviation system, we are concerned about new enhanced pat down screening protocols and urge you to reconsider the utilization of these protocols,” said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, chairwoman of the subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection in a letter sent to TSA head John S. Pistole Friday.
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee ranking Republican John L. Mica of Florida and Thomas E. Petri, R-Wis., ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee, struck a similar note in their own note to Pistole.
