Transportation Security Administration (TSA)'s head of security operations, Kelly Hoggan, was removed from his post on May 23, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said.
Darby LaJoye, former head of security operations at Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport, will be Hoggan's replacement, effective immediately.
Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee expressed concern at a May 12 hearing over a $90,000 bonus package Hoggan received, as well as his apparent role in screening failures and directed reassignments, which was a controversial and widely used practice eliminated by recently appointed TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger.
The $90,000 bonus payments awarded to Hoggan while he was head of security operations were broken up in quantities between $8,000 and $12,705 over 13 months since 2013.
"I don't think that level of bonus is justified, period," Administrator Neffenger said at the May 12 Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing when asked about the bonus.
But at that point, though, Neffenger said he did not have any plans to remove Hoggan from his position.
"He has performed to my expectations since I've been there," Neffenger said at the hearing. "I have not seen digressions on his part in the time that I've been in TSA."
In the midst of growing TSA security line wait times, the general manager of the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, was also fired.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in a statement that Miguel Southwell's tenure as general manager ended and Roosevelt Council, the airport's current chief financial officer and deputy general manager, will serve as interim general manager.
