The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

The threat of attacks on aircraft by terrorists or other remains a persistent and growing concern for the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the trend in terrorism against U.S. targets is toward large-scale incidents designed for maximum distraction, terror and media impact, exactly what terrorist intended in a 1995 blot to blow up 12 U.S. airliners in a single day.

We appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss aviation security, in particular airport screeners. Securing an air transportation system the size of this nation's-with hundreds of airports, thousands of aircraft, and tens of thousands of flights daily carrying millions of passengers and pieces of baggage-is a difficult task. Events over the past decade have shown that the threat of terrorism against the United States is an ever-present danger. Aviation is an attractive target for terrorists, and because the air transportation system is critical to the nation's well-being, protecting it is an important national issue. A single lapse in aviation security can result in hundreds of deaths, destruction of equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and have immeasurable negative impacts on the economy and the public's confidence in air travel. A number of measures have been put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation industry to provide the security needed for the aviation system; among the most important ones are the passenger screening checkpoints and the screeners who operate them. Concerns have been raised for many years by GAO and others about the effectiveness of screeners and the need to improve their performance. Two Presidential commissions-established after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 and the then-unexplained crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996-as well as numerous GAO and Department of Transportation Inspector General reports have highlighted problems with screening and the need for improvements. This situation still exists, Mr. Chairman, and as I will discuss, there are long-standing problems that affect screener performance.