Noem and DHS watchdog feuding over classified airport security risk report
Source: msn/CBS News
12h
Weeks before Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired by President Trump, a dispute between her department and its internal watchdog over access to records and communications with Congress had been escalating. The conflict burst into public view when senior Republican senators eviscerated Noem at a hearing earlier this week.
The feud has raised concerns over the Department of Homeland Security's apparent move to restrict oversight of a classified report examining airport security screening.
During a Senate hearing Tuesday, GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, confronted Noem over allegations that her department issued a memo to prohibit DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari from discussing a classified report about covert testing of Transportation Security Administration checkpoints with certain congressional committees.
Grassley said the report concerns undercover testing of TSA screening procedures, adding that the Government Accountability Office has been unable to obtain the report or access TSA personnel as part of its own review into the classified findings. The Iowa senator also said the Government Accountability Office has been unable to obtain the report or contact TSA personnel as part of its own review. "If what my office has been told is accurate," Grassley said, addressing Noem from the dais, "these matters should have been ironed out a long time ago."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/noem-dhs-watchdog-feuding-over-classified-airport-security-risk-report/