TSA warned of 'potentially catastrophic security' risk and urged to reintroduce rule
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images
The US has been urged to bring back a rule it got rid of last year, after the move was called ‘reckless’ and created a ‘security deficiency’.
A Democrat has left a scathing statement in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security after former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s controversial reversal of a safety policy, that was created to allow Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff to see specific dangers concealed by travelers.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, of Illinois, called out Noem for her ‘reckless and dangerous’ policy that she abandoned nearly two decades after it was first implemented.
The ‘Shoes on’ policy was created to replace the ‘Shoes off’ policy on July 8 last year, which Duckworth said could increase the risk of terrorism and smuggling dangerous substances on flights.
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The policy involves travelers being able to keep their shoes on when they go through airport security, despite TSA being unable to screen people’s shoes effectively, per an internal investigation by a watchdog.
“Secretary Noem’s decision to implement a shoes on policy on July 8, 2025, likely without meaningful consultation with TSA [Transportation Security Administration], was a reckless act,” Duckworth wrote to Ha Nguyen McNeill, the administrator of the DHS, per CBS News.
Duckworth then accused the department of ‘allowing a potentially catastrophic security deficiency to remain in place for seven months and counting’ which ‘betrays TSA’s mission'.
“At a minimum, TSA’s failure to swiftly implement corrective action warrants the immediate withdrawal of Secretary Noem’s reckless and dangerous policy that increases the risk of a terrorist smuggling a dangerous item onto a flight,” she said, adding: “Noem’s policy move had inadvertently created a new security vulnerability in the system.”
The rule meant that those aged between 12 and 75 had to remove their shoes ahead of scanning, but if you had opted into TSA’s Precheck Trusted Traveler program, you could keep them on.
Shoes off became a thing in 2006 after Richard Reid, aka the ‘Shoe bomber’ packed 10 ounces of explosives in his shoes in attempt to detonate explosives an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001.
Neom’s dismissal of that rule aimed to make security checks quicker, however, its inability to maintain security standards led to Duckworth speaking out.
After the watchdog initially brought up the findings, the TSA was sent a letter to correct its gap in security within a 90-day timeframe, as the Illinois senator argued that the TSA's lack of response could violate federal law.
She wrote: "Such inaction violates Federal law, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance and DHS's own directives.”
Of course, there were people who enjoyed not having to take their shoes off, but if it's safer...what's the harm?
UNILAD reached out to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs and the Transportation Security Administration for comment.