By Sarah Ploss, Kathryn Krupnik, Kris Van Cleave
Updated on: April 3, 2026 / 7:34 PM EDT
A key senator is demanding the Transportation Security Administration reverse its decision to let travelers keep their shoes on during airport screening, calling the policy a “reckless” safety risk tied to a classified security warning.
In a letter obtained exclusively by CBS News, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the Illinois Democrat and ranking member of the Senate aviation subcommittee, urged TSA to immediately rescind the “shoes-on” policy. Duckworth said the change may be placing the flying public at risk and was likely implemented “without meaningful consultation with TSA.” She pointed to a Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigation that found the policy created a new vulnerability in screening systems.
Duckworth’s demand is the first lawmaker call to reverse the policy following CBS News reporting on a classified inspector general audit that used covert “red team” testing to identify serious vulnerabilities in TSA screening nationwide. The classified report found TSA scanners cannot effectively screen shoes, raising concerns that threat items could evade detection; those findings, CBS reported, were buried by DHS leadership.
The inspector general flagged the issue as urgent in a rare “Seven-Day Letter” to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Duckworth wrote, but no corrective action was taken. She called that failure “outrageous, unacceptable and dangerous to the flying public.”
“Allowing a potentially catastrophic security deficiency to remain in place for seven months and counting betrays TSA’s mission,” Duckworth wrote. “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.”
In her April 3 letter to acting TSA Administrator Nguyen McNeill, Duckworth argued TSA’s lack of response may violate federal law, noting the agency missed a required 90-day deadline to outline corrective actions after receiving the watchdog’s findings. She said that lapse undermines oversight and safety and “violates Federal law, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance and DHS’s own directives.”
The requirement that passengers remove shoes was adopted after the 2001 “shoe bomber” plot, when a would-be bomber tried to detonate explosives hidden in footwear on a U.S.-bound flight. DHS lifted that rule and implemented a “shoes-on” policy on July 8, 2025, under Secretary Noem. At the time, DHS said the move would “increase hospitality for travelers and streamline the TSA security checkpoint process, leading to lower wait times,” and asserted the decision would not affect security because of “cutting-edge technological advancements and multi-layered security.”
CBS News reported the agency has not issued the inspector general-required response months later, leaving recommended fixes “open and unresolved” and raising questions about whether known security gaps are being addressed. Duckworth argued that abandoning the shoe-removal safeguard without ensuring screening technology can compensate reintroduces a known vulnerability.
The letter also criticized Noem, who left her role last month and was replaced by DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, accusing her of prioritizing politics over security. Duckworth said Noem’s decision reflected a “willingness to gamble the American people’s security” and called it a “stunning failure of leadership.”
CBS News has reached out to DHS and TSA for comment.