The Trump administration has been neglectful in nominating professionals to sub-cabinet positions, with many cabinet secretaries, including those at State and Defense, lacking permanent deputies and a whole host of government agencies suffering from absent leadership at the top.

One of those agencies is the Transportation Security Administration, best known for inconveniencing air travelers, but which also plays an important role in securing air cargo.

Now the Airforwarders Association (AfA) called on President Trump to nominate a new administrator for the agency.

The TSA has been without a confirmed administrator since the end of the last presidential administration when Peter Neffinger retired from the agency.

Citing the importance of the Transportation Security Administration to the safe, secure, and efficient movement of air cargo and while praising the work of the agency’s interim leadership and staff, the AfA, which represents more than 300 companies that move air cargo through the supply chain, noted that the TSA’s operations and policies have a broad impact on its members.

“Knowing the way things work in Washington, it is important that TSA is under the direction of someone who has been officially endorsed by both the president and the Congress, so the administration needs to move quickly to name a new administrator and for the Senate to expedite his or her confirmation process,” said Brandon Fried, the AfA’s Executive Director. “It is important to our industry, to the traveling public and the nation at large to get this underway.”

Fried cited a number of policy initiatives that he felt requires a confirmed Administrator to move forward, including finalizing pending changes to TSA’s Indirect Air Carrier Standard Security Program (IACSSP) aimed at making it more efficient, flexible and cost-effective for both industry and government. Confirmed leadership at TSA, said Fried, will also help champion the success of important initiatives such as making modifications to the Known Shipper (KS) program that accommodate the changing needs of business in an ecommerce environment and the expanded use of privatized canines in government certified screening facilities run by air forwarders.