Outgoing TSA Administrator: Next chief should ease liquid restrictions

Outgoing Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole is recommending that his eventual successor ease some of the agency’s restrictions on airline passengers carrying liquids onto flights. 

TSA currently prohibits passengers from carrying liquids that are larger than 3.4 ounces through airport security checkpoints. 

Pistole, who is leaving the TSA at the end of the year, said in a recent interview with USA Today that he would like to see the agency’s next administrator try to change that policy, at least for passengers who are enrolled in TSA’s PreCheck known passenger program.  

{mosads}”The greatest risks come from overseas. The threats are real and the stakes are high,” he said to explain his stance on easing the liquid restrictions for at least some passengers.  

The TSA’s PreCheck program allows fliers to volunteer information in exchange for the possibility of receiving expedited screening at a cost of about $85 for a five-year period. Pistole has touted the program and other “risk-based initiatives” as a sea change in the TSA’s approach to airport security because it allows the agency’s employees to focus more on searching for explosive devices while ruling out passengers who have volunteered to have their backgrounds checked. 

Pistole announced last month he was resigning after nearly five years at the helm of the TSA.  

He has already been tapped to lead his alma mater Anderson University in Indiana, beginning next year.

-This story was updated on Nov. 18 at 1:41 p.m. to correct an earlier version that misidentified the length of a TSA PreCheck subscription.