Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing accusations that her department did not act on an internal watchdog report. The report identified serious problems in the Transportation Security Administration’s airport screening procedures.
It also pointed out issues related to a 2025 policy change that allowed many travelers to keep their shoes on at checkpoints. CBS News reported on Wednesday that the agency still had not submitted a required formal response nearly five months after the report was released.
The report was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general after covert “red team” testing. This testing looked at whether undercover investigators could sneak simulated weapons or explosives through airport screening.
According to CBS News, the investigators found weaknesses in the screening processes. They also questioned whether the shoes-on policy was adopted faster than detection systems could handle threats concealed in footwear.
FACT CHECK: When Democrats introduced a clean bill to fully fund TSA with no conditions, Republicans blocked it.⁰⁰DHS under disgraced outgoing Secretary Noem tried to dismantle TSA union rights and Republicans have even floated eliminating TSA entirely. ⁰⁰Republicans own this https://t.co/yDZNLWlG0u
— Homeland Dems (@HomelandDems) March 11, 2026
During previous sworn testimony to lawmakers, Noem claimed that “all of the recommendations” in the inspector general’s report had been implemented. However, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari noted in a March 4 memo that his office had not received any evidence, written or oral, from DHS or TSA to back that statement. He requested TSA leadership to “promptly provide” documents detailing any actions taken on each recommendation and evidence supporting those steps.
CBS reported that auditors were still waiting for what federal oversight rules call a “management decision.” This is the formal step in which an agency states whether it agrees with audit findings and what corrective actions it plans to take. Without that step, the recommendations remain open and unresolved. Under federal law and DHS policy, agencies are generally expected to issue that response within 90 days.
The dispute also focused on how restricted the findings were within DHS. According to correspondence reviewed by CBS News, a key finding from the testing was classified as Top Secret and shared only with 13 individuals in the government, a group designated by the DHS secretary.
Cuffari informed Noem in a letter that the list included three members of Congress, two employees in the inspector general’s office, seven DHS employees, and one employee from the Executive Office of the President, while TSA leadership was excluded from the distribution list.
TSA’s exact words in the official airport video: “the ongoing Democrat shutdown.” Portland Airport refused to play it. Hatch Act. Seven airports refused the identical Noem video last year on the same grounds. A federal security agency used official channels and taxpayer resources… https://t.co/rIfQPhqzo2 pic.twitter.com/LLa7A6LiX2
— Mike Young (@micyoung75) March 15, 2026
This meant the agency responsible for addressing the problem could not fully access or engage with the findings for months, according to CBS. Cuffari mentioned in a February letter that his office had been “unable to substantively engage TSA on this project since September 18, 2025,” due to the department’s constraints on who could view the report. He also noted that repeated requests to change or lift those restrictions went unanswered.
The issue had already attracted attention on Capitol Hill before Wednesday’s report. In earlier CBS reporting, Sen. Chuck Grassley stated that the matter should have been resolved much earlier, while Sen. Thom Tillis criticized the handling of the classified report. Sen. Gary Peters also mentioned that his committee was examining what he described as potential obstruction of communications between the inspector general and Congress.
The inspector general’s covert testing has led to significant action in the past. CBS noted that after similar testing in 2015 revealed that TSA screeners missed mock weapons or explosives in most cases at 15 airports, then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered major retraining and other changes.
DHS stated to CBS that it remains “confident in our multilayered security approach” and said TSA had conducted more than 1,000 red team tests in the past year.
