06.22.15

After Long White House Delay, Senate Ready to Confirm New TSA Administrator

‘I wish the White House hadn’t waited six months to send us a nominee to lead this troubled agency; but now that the Administration finally has, we’re glad to see it’s a highly qualified candidate like Peter Neffenger.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the nomination of Vice Admiral Neffenger:

“We’ll vote tonight to bring long-overdue permanent leadership to an agency in urgent need of reform and culture change: the TSA.

“I wish the White House hadn’t waited six months to send us a nominee to lead this troubled agency; but now that the Administration finally has, we’re glad to see it’s a highly qualified candidate like Peter Neffenger.

“It’s never easy to ensure a Senate review process that’s appropriately thorough yet necessarily expeditious in the face of so many months of White House delay, but that’s just what Chairman Thune and Chairman Johnson achieved with the nominee before us.

“I thank them both for their good work.

“If confirmed this evening, Vice Admiral Neffenger will certainly have a tough job ahead of him. We’re all aware of the recent inspector-general report that questioned the TSA’s ability to meet its security mission without change.

“The American people will be counting on Mr. Neffenger to validate the trust their elected representatives place in him tonight by pursuing every necessary reform in the wake of such troubling findings.

“The Senate appears to have confidence he can. There’s no doubt the Senate — and the American people — will be expecting he will.”