Sen. Duckworth slams policy allowing shoes on at airport security checkpoints

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Aviation Subcommittee, is demanding the Trump Administration rescind former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem’s “dangerous policy” that allows travelers to keep their shoes on at airport security screening checkpoints.

Duckworth's request came in the form of a letter to DHS and a press release on Friday. Her request comes following a DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) finding that the policy “created a new security vulnerability in the system.”

The Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) standard policy that requires all passengers to remove their shoes was implemented after the failed “Shoe Bomber” terrorist attack in 2001, when a man successfully sneaked an explosive onto a plane by hiding it in his shoe. In fact, if he had been able to detonate his explosive during the flight, it would have killed all 197 passengers and the flight crew.

“Secretary Noem’s decision to implement a shoes-on policy on July 8, likely without meaningful consultation with TSA, was a reckless act,” wrote Duckworth in a letter to the TSA. “The DHS Inspector General conducted covert testing that reportedly found certain TSA Advanced Imaging Technology full body scanners ‘can’t scan shoes’—leading DHS OIG to determine, ‘Noem’s policy move had inadvertently created a new security vulnerability in the system.’”

Duckworth says the DHS has ignored and refused to address the concerns raised by the OIG.