Transportation Security Administration: Progress and Challenges Faced in Strengthening Three Key Security Programs Page: 4 of 18
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standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to
obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for
our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings
and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We conducted our related
investigative work in accordance with standards prescribed by the Council
of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.Background
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) established TSA as
the federal agency with primary responsibility for securing the nation's
civil aviation system, which includes the screening of all passengers and
property transported from and within the United States by commercial
passenger aircraft.3 In accordance with ATSA, all passengers, their
accessible property, and their checked baggage are screened pursuant to
TSA-established procedures at the 446 airports presently regulated for
security by TSA. These procedures generally provide, among other
things, that passengers pass through security checkpoints where they
and their identification documents, and accessible property, are checked
by transportation security officers (TSO), other TSA employees, or by
private-sector screeners under TSA's Screening Partnership Program.4
Airport operators, however, also have direct responsibility for
implementing TSA security requirements, such as those relating to
perimeter security and access controls, in accordance with their approved
security programs and other TSA direction.
TSA relies upon multiple layers of security to deter, detect, and disrupt
persons posing a potential risk to aviation security. These layers include
BDOs, who examine airport passenger behaviors and appearances to
identify passengers who might pose a potential security risk at TSA-
regulated airports; travel document checkers, who examine tickets,
passports, and other forms of identification; TSOs responsible for
screening passengers and their carry-on baggage at passenger
3 See Pub. L. No. 107-71, 115 Stat. 597 (2001). For purposes of this testimony,
"commercial passenger aircraft" refers to U.S. or foreign-flagged air carriers operating
under TSA-approved security programs with regularly scheduled passenger operations to
or from a U.S. airport.
4 Private-sector screeners, employed by an entity under contract to and overseen by TSA,
and not TSOs, perform screening activities at the 16 airports currently participating in
TSA's Screening Partnership Program as of March 2012. See 49 U.S.C. 44920.GAO-12-541T
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United States. Government Accountability Office. Transportation Security Administration: Progress and Challenges Faced in Strengthening Three Key Security Programs, text, March 26, 2012; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc297381/m1/4/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.