I didn’t know this was happening, so thank you for the heads up. The retaliation against the whistleblowers is really the worst part of the situation. The long lines are annoying but the retaliation against whistleblowers is evil.
What counts as “performance” for the TSA? If it’s anything less than a three act farce, then I’ll eat my hat.
I’m not sure why the bonuses are so central to the conversation here, because the rhetoric makes it sound like he gave them to himself. Unless that actually happened (and I don’t rule it out, given the way upper echelons of government work), why are the bonuses his fault? The shitty performance is his fault, but somebody else should be on the carpet for bonusing him.
Really, this is what did it? Long lines? How about every single thing the TSA has ever done throughout its existence?
People get angry about the security theater and the lack of common sense. Corporations, namely airlines, got mad about long lines. He just pissed off his bosses’ bosses.
Nobody said the bonuses were his fault, the question was pointed at Neffenger.
Congressional budget cuts are partly to blame for the scope of this circus. I mean, I understand that the whole department was ill-conceived and then staffed with incompetents. That said, part of the issue with lines has been pressure to keep costs down, and that means no overtime for the peons at the bottom of the pyramid making $9/hr. Remember this when Republicans start their government shutdown dance over the cuts they want to make to the budget. If we’re going to do this, it needs to be fully funded, not running on 70% of what was allocated two years ago.
Sure, he was removed from his post; but was he then RapiScanned, probed, and then made to wait for 3 hours in line before being shown the door? 
The question is, what is he getting the bonus for? If it’s performance-related, then what is the performance improvement in the TSA? Did they catch 25% more terrorists last year than the year before? Did the TSA become 10% more efficient? Or did he save money by cutting overtime and reducing staffing levels (but maybe not by reducing upper echelon bonuses)?
Head of security? What else does the TSA do?
Because he was in his office most of the time? Sometimes I get the feeling this is the reason for payment packages of executives, “company reports losses, CEO bonus increased” is a way too normal headline.
One down, 50,000 to go.
I was surprised to read that his salary was $183k. I sure as hell wouldn’t take that job and those responsibilities for that amount of money.
He looks like he’s wearing a Hawaiian shirt even though he’s wearing a suit and tie
Adios MoFo, and soon to be replaced by another incompetent.
OTOH, there’s a strong whiff of Republican witch-hunt here. They just love to show civil servants as inept and incompetent, especially when budget cuts make it impossible to do their job.
And that business of “I’m not saying it’s money laundering, but it sure looks like…” Bullshit. If it’s your goddam paycheck, how could it possibly be money laundering? Do they think he puts on a wig and takes it to the check cashing place?
Hence the VA scrutiny being brought up again as well. Civil servants are being targeted in an election year. Neither are performing well, the pay is certainly high, but I agree there is a bit of stink here.
That said, the TSA should just be removed entirely for being an expensive and useless reaction that pushed the responsibility away from the other useless and expensive administrations that failed to protect the US before 9/11.
On NPR this morning a guest was interviewed who said that part of the reason TSA funding is down is that, while there’s a TSA surcharge on tickets that we all pay when we fly (those of us who fly on US airlines), money from that surchage has been diverted away from TSA to other programs. Anyone know about this?
(I’m flying today, I can’t wait to see what TSA treats lie in store. I managed to go six years without flying but a relative moved crosscountry so now I feel compelled.)
