Airport workers got security badges before TSA completed background checks, watchdog finds

The Transportation Security Administration isn’t ensuring that airport workers are cleared to hold those jobs, an inspector general found in a new report. 

As part of the background check process for airport workers, including baggage handlers, restaurant employees and shop attendants, TSA verifies applicants’ identities as well as checks whether they pose security threats and are in the U.S. legally. If an individual fails this assessment, the agency can issue a “Do Not Issue” notice. 

The watchdog found, however, that between fiscal 2022 and 2024, some airport workers received badges before TSA completed security threat assessments that resulted in a “Do Not Issue” notice. The number of affected workers was redacted. 

In one case, an airport worker continued to hold an active badge for 177 days before it was revoked. 

Auditors found that the lapses generally occurred when airport operators or applicants didn’t respond to TSA requests for more information or corrections to an applicant’s records. 

The IG for the Homeland Security Department reported on several other issues with the airport worker clearance process, although specific numbers were often redacted, including: 

• Airport operators did not always collect biographical information that matched the information TSA used to screen applicants, creating a risk that the agency could assess the wrong person and miss potentially disqualifying information.
• Airport operators granted certain access to a “restricted portion of an airport where the most sensitive operations occur” to airport workers who provided inaccurate social security numbers during the application process. 
• Some airport workers who were required to be enrolled in the FBI’s Rap Back program, which notifies airport operators if a worker commits an offense that would disqualify them from their position, were not. 

When an airport operator prematurely issues a badge to a worker, TSA can penalize them, such as by requiring a corrective action plan, issuing a fine or even suspending the airport’s operations. Auditors found that TSA counseled one airport operator, required corrective action plans from two others and issued four warnings to three more operators. But otherwise, there were 19 violations across 14 operators that resulted in no penalties. 

The IG made four recommendations, all of which TSA agreed to implement. 

Agency officials said that they would improve the penalty process and ensure that all workers who are required to participate in the FBI’s Rap Back Program are enrolled by the end of 2026.

TSA also said that, by Sept. 30, 2027, it would develop a process to ensure it’s maintaining accurate applicant records and better monitor enforcement of “Do Not Issue” notices. 

The DHS IG raised similar concerns in September, reporting that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services let dozens of its employees stay in national security positions even after they were determined to be ineligible for the roles due to security concerns or damaging information about them was uncovered.