Senator decries new shoes-on security policy at US airports as ‘reckless’ | US news

Nine months after US airports allowed passengers to pass through scanners without removing their shoes and rescinded the strict policy almost two decades later, a senior senator has claimed the “reckless” move could endanger passengers.

The policy amounts to a “potentially devastating lack of safety,” according to Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation (CST) aviation subcommittee.

In a letter to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) deputy administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, Duckworth cited reports that some scanners were unable to scan shoes.

The new shoe-wearing policy was implemented last July by former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem, ending a rule put in place after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to crash a plane from Paris to Miami in December 2001 with explosives in his shoes.

He was later sentenced to three life sentences plus 110 years in prison.

Duckworth, who lost both legs and part of her right arm in 2004 when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by an RPG during the second Iraq war, said in a statement that Noem’s decision was a “reckless action” “likely without meaningful consultation with the TSA.”

TSA and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Noem also discussed loosening restrictions on the amount of liquids airline passengers are allowed to bring as carry-on luggage on flights. Most remain in place, but medically necessary liquids, gels and aerosols in quantities greater than 3.4 ounces are now allowed if declared for the first time.

Duckworth recently reintroduced a bill that would make it easier for parents to travel with breast milk and breastfeeding supplies through airports.

In a statement Friday, Duckworth said the DHS inspector general conducted undercover testing that found some TSA full-body scanners “failed to scan shoes,” adding that the inspector general’s office determined the policy move “inadvertently created a new vulnerability in the system.”

“At the very least, TSA’s failure to quickly implement corrective action warrants an immediate reversal of Secretary Noem’s reckless and dangerous policy that increases the risk of a terrorist smuggling a dangerous substance onto a plane,” the senator wrote in his letter to TSA.

The request to reinstate the shoe policy comes as U.S. travelers face long lines to ensure security at airports following a record-long partial government shutdown. Hundreds of TSA employees have left the agency since the shutdown began, but their missed paychecks have been retroactively paid.