Airport Alert: Pekoske Nomination for Second TSA Term Advances; House Subcommittee Holds Facial Recognition Hearing

On July 27, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee favorably advanced David Pekoske's nomination to serve a second term as the TSA Administrator to the full Senate for consideration.  The Committee approved his nomination by voice vote, however, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) opposed it. It is unclear when the Senate may vote on his nomination. Pekoske's current five-year term expires in early August.  

Later in the day, the House Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations held a hearing about U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) deployment of facial recognition technology. CBP did not participate in this hearing. Instead, the Subcommittee heard from a variety of stakeholders about the deployment and advancement of this technology as it related to accuracy, bias, ability to opt-out, and privacy when verifying traveler identities. Witnesses included:

• Rebecca Gambler, Director, Homeland Security and Justice, U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO);
• Jeramie D. Scott, Senior Counsel, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC);
• Nicol Turner Lee, Director, The Center for Technology Innovation (CTI), the Brookings Institution; and 
• Daniel Tanciar, Chief Innovation Officer, Pangiam.
 
During this hearing, GAO focused on changes and improvements CBP has made to its facial recognition technology, additional audits of its partners for compliance with CBP's privacy requirements, and photo capture accuracy requirements since GAO reported on this technology in 2020. EPIC testified that CBP is relying on flawed technology, is unable to safeguard facial recognition images, and that this technology is 'a dangerous surveillance tool.' EPIC recommended that CBP should voluntarily cease using facial recognition technology and that Congress should put in place a number of requirements on CBP for its use of this technology.  CTI focused on the accuracies of facial recognition technologies and the need to improve race and gender identification to reduce the misidentification of individuals.   Mr. Tanciar, a former CBP officer who was a senior executive in the office responsible for implementing biometric entry-exit technology, testified about his personal experiences in developing and implementing facial recognition technology and the security and passenger facilitation benefits it offers.

You can watch the hearing and read the witnesses' statements through the House Homeland Security Committee's website.