One senator of the United States outright demands that the removal of shoes at security checkpoints of airports throughout the United States return immediately, as a “new security vulnerability” has been created.
Senator Demands Return of Removal of Shoes at Airport Security Checkpoints
The senator is Ladda Tammy Duckworth, who currently represents the state of Illinois as a senator of the United States and is also the ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Aviation Subcommittee. The demand was publicly released earlier today, Friday, April 3, 2026, after she “learned from the DHS OIG that DHS has ignored and refused to address the concerns the OIG raised after a covert audit revealed ‘significant safety and security’ concerns within the TSA’s airport security screening.”
The policy of passengers removing their shoes at security checkpoints at airports throughout the United States was rescinded on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 by Kristi Noem, who was the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security of the United States but was recently terminated from that position by the president of the United States.
“Ending the ‘Shoes-Off’ policy is the latest effort DHS is implementing to modernize and enhance traveler experience across our nation’s airports,” Noem said, according to an official press release. “We expect this change will drastically decrease passenger wait times at our TSA checkpoints, leading to a more pleasant and efficient passenger experience. As always, security remains our top priority. Thanks to our cutting-edge technological advancements and multi-layered security approach, we are confident we can implement this change while maintaining the highest security standards.”
The letter from the official Internet web site of Tammy Duckworth to Ha Nguyen McNeill — who was appointed as the acting deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — is replicated below in its entirety:
Dear Ms. McNeill:
I demand that you immediately rescind former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s policy forcing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to allow travelers to keep their shoes on at airport security screening checkpoints despite credible and disturbing reports that covert testing conducted during a performance audit identified serious findings with significant safety and security implications for the traveling public.
TSA’s policy of requiring all passengers to remove their shoes originated with the failed “Shoe Bomber” terrorist attack. This incident occurred on December 22, 2001, when Richard Reid attempted to detonate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hidden in his shoes during a Miami bound flight. Had Reid succeeded in detonating the IEDs concealed in his shoes, the explosives likely would have blown a hole in the fuselage and caused the plane to crash, killing all 197 passengers and the flight crew.
Secretary Noem’s decision to implement a shoes on policy on July 8, 2025, likely without meaningful consultation with TSA, was a reckless act. According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted covert testing that found certain TSA Advanced Imaging Technology full body scanners “can’t scan shoes”—leading DHS OIG to determine, “Noem’s policy move had inadvertently created a new security vulnerability in the system.”
According to DHS OIG, when investigators covertly tested the effectiveness of TSA’s airport checkpoint security screening at preventing threat items from being brought onto commercial aircraft, a significant finding was uncovered that warranted Inspector General Joseph Cuffari issuing a Seven-Day Letter on August 26, 2025, to Secretary Noem notifying the Secretary of its time-sensitive significant finding that required swift corrective action. Secretary Noem’s subsequent failure to direct DHS to engage DHS OIG on the substance of the Seven-Day Letter was outrageous, unacceptable and dangerous to the flying public.
Secretary Noem’s shoes on policy remains in effect—despite President Donald Trump publicly announcing the firing of Secretary Noem on March 5, 2026 (effective at the end of March). It is unclear, at best, whether DHS and TSA took any action to address the alarming security findings uncovered during covert field testing of TSA’s effectiveness at preventing dangerous items from being smuggled onto commercial aircraft.
Such inaction violates Federal law, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance and DHS’s own directives requiring that TSA provide a Management Decision with planned corrective actions and target completion dates within 90 days after OIG’s final report is transmitted—in this case by January 30, 2026.
While under oath, you testified to Congress that you had read the DHS OIG final report in November 2025 and that you concurred with the findings and recommendations. Yet, it appears TSA not only failed to submit the Management Decision within 90 days of DHS OIG transmitting its final report but also has, to this day, still failed to comply with a critically important statutory requirement, OMB guidance and DHS directives.
Allowing a potentially catastrophic security deficiency to remain in place for seven months and counting 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.
Secretary Noem’s willingness to gamble the American people’s security in an unsuccessful attempt to boost her popularity was, and remains, a stunning failure of leadership—particularly following President Trump’s decision to launch an unconstitutional war of choice against Iran that DHS has determined, “is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States.” I demand you immediately rescind the dangerous TSA policy that former Secretary Noem recklessly implemented, until the agency implements comprehensive corrective action and the DHS OIG tests and verifies that the updates effectively address the significant findings uncovered during covert field testing.
A Brief History of What Led to the Requirement of Removing Shoes
The required procedure was in effect chiefly because Richard Reid — who was infamously known as the Shoe Bomber — attempted to blow up a commercial aircraft that operated as American Airlines flight 63, which was carrying 197 passengers and members of the flight crew from Paris to Miami on Saturday, December 22, 2001. Reid wore shoes aboard the airplane that were packed with explosives, which he unsuccessfully attempted to detonate. Passengers subdued him aboard the airplane during the flight, which was diverted to Logan International Airport in Boston, where Reid was arrested, charged, and indicted. Reid is currently serving a sentence of three life terms plus 110 years in prison without a chance for parole after he plead guilty to eight federal criminal counts of terrorism at the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Friday, October 4, 2002 — including:
- Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction
- Attempted homicide
- Placing or transporting an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft or public mass transportation vehicle
- Attempted murder
- Two counts of interference with flight crew members and attendants on an aircraft
- Attempted destruction of an aircraft or public mass transportation vehicle
- Using a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence
- Attempted destruction of an aircraft
The eventual response by the Transportation Security Administration was to require that all passengers remove their shoes before being screened at airport security checkpoints; and a secondary screening awaited passengers who refused — a policy I always thought was ridiculous.
Passengers who were enrolled in a trusted passenger program — such as TSA Pre✓ and Global Entry as two examples — were permitted to wear their shoes throughout the entire process of being screened at security checkpoints at designated airports.
Final Boarding Call
With all due respect, Tammy Duckworth, I suggest you keep your shoes on about forcing others to remove their shoes. There is no need for you to lose your sole over this and have all of us regress back to the dark ages instep. Instead, perhaps bite your tongue, lace up your mouth, and do not be such a heel about a perceived threat that is basically non-existent.
On the contrary: I vehemently believe that the restriction on liquids and gels at the security checkpoints at airports should be the next useless policy to be eliminated, as I wrote in this article on Thursday, November 17, 2022. In fact, that is the topic of the very first official article that was published here at The Gate With Brian Cohen on Friday, August 18, 2006, which is called Liquids and Gels: What Is Allowed to Carry On Board and What Is Not Allowed? — as well as a follow-up article published exactly five years later called Should the Limitations on Liquids Be Repealed? and this Stupid Tip of the Day: Traveling With Liquid Toiletries.
Ladda Tammy Duckworth has been serving as a senator of the United States since 2017. Before that, she represented the eighth congressional district of the state of Illinois in the House of Representatives of the United States from 2013 to 2017; and prior to that, she was the assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs from 2009 through 2011.
This is a prime example of my call for politicians to be required to obey every law they pass. Think about it: how much would you like to bet that Ladda Tammy Duckworth has never had to remove her shoes even once at the security checkpoints at airports throughout the United States over the past 17 years?
All photographs ©2017, ©2020, ©2021, and ©2025 by Brian Cohen.
