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.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina blasted the DHS secretary, suggesting the inspector general’s actions signaled unusually serious findings.
“Does anyone have any idea how bad it has to be for the inspector general to come out and do this publicly?” Tillis said.
The remarks have triggered a broader investigation by the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, who’s now leading a probe into whether DHS improperly restricted its watchdog’s ability to communicate with lawmakers.
In a March 4 letter to DHS General Counsel James Percival, Peters said the panel is examining “potential obstruction of communications by the Inspector General to Congress.” The committee is also reviewing allegations from Cuffari that the department has “systematically obstructed” the top watchdog’s work.
The letter references a warning from Percival to Cuffari that notifying Congress about access problems could constitute “bad faith and bordering on a material misrepresentation.”
“This threat to the Inspector General not to communicate with Congress is unacceptable,” Peters wrote.
The dispute centers partly on a classified report the inspector general completed late last year following covert “red team” testing of TSA checkpoint screening conducted after the agency announced a policy change that allows travelers to keep their shoes on during security screening.
According to a source briefed on the decision, TSA was not directly consulted before the policy change was announced. The policy reversal, announced July 8, 2025, ended a requirement in place since 2006 and was initially welcomed by travelers eager to speed up airport security lines, though it remains unclear how much testing or risk analysis preceded the move.
According to multiple sources familiar with the report, subsequent TSA red-team testing involved undercover auditors attempting to move simulated prohibited items through airport security checkpoints — a long-standing method used by DHS watchdogs to measure the effectiveness of screening procedures.
Sources said the report raised serious concerns tied to DHS’ decision to allow travelers to keep their shoes on during airport screening.
Under standard procedure, DHS had 90 days to respond to the report with a corrective action plan. That window appears to have expired, and the issue has not been resolved, according to lawmakers testifying earlier this week.
The dispute has since broadened into a larger conflict over the inspector general’s authority to access DHS records and information concerning multiple independent investigations.
In a March 2 letter to Congress, Cuffari wrote that DHS has “systematically obstructed the work of the DHS Office of Inspector General.” He described numerous instances where the department denied or delayed access to databases and classified information needed by auditors in their independent investigations.
The inspector general accused the department of blocking long-standing access to internal DHS databases used for oversight work, restricting data related to border enforcement and TSA programs, and delaying access to classified intelligence systems.
In one case, the inspector general wrote that DHS officials refused to perform what he described as a routine administrative step to grant investigators access to an intelligence program, even though another intelligence agency had approved the request. That refusal “stymie[d] our work,” Cuffari wrote, citing a review related to the 2024 attempted assassination of then-former President Donald Trump.
According to a letter written by Cuffari, DHS blocked inspector general access to the following systems and databases:
- BorderStat, a database containing real-time information on border crossings and inspections.
- A counterintelligence database needed for a national security–related criminal investigation.
- TECS, the system used to track how border officers inspect and admit travelers entering the United States.
- A security clearance eligibility database tracking which DHS employees and contractors are cleared for access to classified information.
- Secure Flight, TSA’s system that screens airline passengers against government watchlists.
- The Unified Immigration Portal, which contains data on border arrests, detentions, and releases.
- A classified intelligence program relevant to the review of the July 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Cuffari also wrote that DHS has established a new internal framework requiring the inspector general to justify requests for information, a process he described as a “manufactured and confusing framework involving six distinct variables” not derived from the Inspector General Act.
The Inspector General Act typically grants federal watchdogs broad authority to access agency records unless an agency or department formally invokes specific national security provisions to block that access — a rare step that would require notification to Congress. Cuffari said that authority has not been invoked in this case.
Former U.S. officials who oversaw earlier covert testing of TSA screening procedures, told CBS News the situation described in the letters would represent a significant departure from the way oversight has traditionally worked.
Officials were surprised to learn that DHS lawyers – not the inspector general’s office – had briefed members of Congress, a practice one official called “completely inappropriate.”
“These reports are exactly the kind of thing the inspector general is supposed to explain directly to Congress,” the official added.
Covert testing by the DHS inspector general has historically exposed significant vulnerabilities in airport screening systems.
In past cases, this kind of testing by the DHS IG has prompted major changes at TSA. In 2015, after a covert “red team” test revealed screeners failed to detect mock weapons or explosives in the vast majority of attempts at 15 airports, the findings leaked publicly. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered sweeping reforms, including a mass retraining of TSA officers and an overhaul of screening procedures.
In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the department is “confident in our multilayered security approach,” writing that within the past year, TSA has conducted over 1,000 red team tests.
