Passenger Screening R&D: Responding to President Obama’s Call to Develop and Deploy the Next Generation of Screening Technologies
Opening Statement By Chairman David Wu
Good afternoon. I’d like to welcome everyone to today’s hearing on passenger screening research and development.
The attempted bombing on a Christmas Day 2009 flight revealed gaps in current airport security measures. We are all thankful that this attempt was, like several other previous plots, unsuccessful. At the same time, these attacks have exposed vulnerabilities in current passenger screening technologies that must be addressed. Moving forward, we must make sure that Department of Homeland Security research is actively closing the gaps in our capabilities, producing security methods that the public will accept, and increasing our ability to keep Americans safe.
In response to the failed Christmas Day attempt, President Obama called on the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Department of Energy to develop and deploy the next generation of airport screening technologies. The purpose of today’s hearing is to learn how DHS and other federal agencies will respond to the president’s challenge to develop improved screening technologies.
In addition, I am troubled by the lack of attention DHS has paid in the past to public acceptance issues. In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences identified the need to pay more attention to public acceptance issues in the deployment of passenger screening technologies. Ten years later the Academies concluded that nothing had changed and these issues were still ignored. No wonder the deployment of body-scanning technologies has proven to be such a public failure: the relevant agencies did not do their homework and follow-up on the Academies’ recommendation in a serious way.
Therefore, it concerns me that in the written testimony, other than passing comments on the privacy aspects of deploying airport screening technologies, the agencies before us today still do not have a robust and comprehensive plan for conducting and using effective public acceptance research. Nor do they seem to have a plan to allow for input from stakeholders, such as the public, airport officials, or airlines. I want to assure everyone in this room that I am committed to ensuring that legitimate public concerns are adequately addressed in the development of any next-generation airport screening technologies. Of course the screening process must protect the public, but it must be accepted by the public as well.
Finally, I look forward to hearing how NIST and DHS will work together to address technical standards, accreditation, and certification of these new technologies. Without these pieces in place, new technologies cannot be deployed effectively.
I want to thank our witnesses for being here. We plan to act on their guidance.
Witnesses
Panel
0 - Mr. Brad Buswell
Deputy Undersecretary of the Science and Technology Directorate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
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0 - Dr. Penrose Albright
Principal Associate Director for Global Security Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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0 - Dr. Bert Coursey
Program Manager Coordinated National Security Standards Program National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Coordinated National Security Standards Pr
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0 - Dr. Sandra Hyland
Senior Principal Engineer BAE Systems BAE Systems
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