In recent undercover tests of multiple airport security checkpoints by the Department of Homeland Security, inspectors said screeners, their equipment or their procedures failed more than half the time, according to a source familiar with the classified report. 
 
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 When ABC News asked the source if the failure rate was 80 percent, the response was, "You are in the ballpark." 
 
 In a public hearing after a private classified briefing to the House Committee on Homeland Security, members of Congress called the failures by the Transportation Security Administration disturbing. 
 
 Rep. Mike Rogers went as far as to tell TSA Administrator David Pekoske, "This agency that you run is broken badly, and it needs your attention." 
 
 Pekoske was confirmed by the Senate this summer. 
 
 Inspectors "identified vulnerabilities with TSA's screener performance, screening equipment and associated procedures," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security. 
 
 The statement added that the findings remain classified but that eight recommendations have been made to the TSA to improve checkpoint security. It is not clear what those recommendations are. 
 
 The news of the failure comes two years after ABC News reported that secret teams from the DHS found that the TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening. 
 
 That report led to major changes ordered at the TSA by then–Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. The agency opened a training academy for transportation security officers and changed procedures to reduce long lines. 
 
 Although lawmakers described the TSA's performance in this round of testing as poor, it was an improvement from two years ago, according to the source familiar with the report. 
 
 In the public hearing today on Capitol Hill, members pushed for the full implementation of a program using new scanning equipment that creates a 3-D image of bags, giving screeners better ability to spot possibly dangerous items. 
 
 The equipment is being tested in TSA checkpoints in at least two airports, but software and installation challenges have slowed wider implementation. 
 
 Rep. Bill Keating suggested that money is being diverted from the agency to build President Trump's promised border wall. 
 
 "We have the technology and resources to do it, but we're not doing it because ... we're paying for a wall," Keating said. 
 
 He also noted that Viper teams, specially trained Homeland Security units that use canines to secure transportation facilities, are being cut from 31 to eight. 
 
 It is not clear when the report will be released publicly. 
 
 The TSA said in a statement that it "concurs with the DHS OIG [Office of Inspector General] findings and is committed to aggressively implementing the recommendations." 
 
 "We take the OIG's findings very seriously and are implementing measures that will improve screening effectiveness at checkpoints," Pekoske said. "We are focused on staying ahead of a dynamic threat to aviation with continued investment in the workforce, enhanced procedures and new technologies." ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Tom Costello and Phil Helsel 
 
 Undercover tests have found Transportation Security Administration screeners failed to detect test weapons at a high rate, according to sources, findings that one Congressional committee chairman called "disturbing." 
 
 Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security were given details about security vulnerabilities by Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the TSA administrator in a classified briefing on Wednesday. 
 
 "Quite frankly, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we found that briefing disturbing," Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at a hearing following the briefing. 
 
 The rate of failure was not disclosed at the public meeting, but congressional and government sources with knowledge of the report said it was high. 
 
 "We take the OIG's findings very seriously and are implementing measures that will improve screening effectiveness at checkpoints," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. 
 
 "We are focused on staying ahead of a dynamic threat to aviation with continued investment in the workforce, enhanced procedures, and new technologies," Pekoske, who was just sworn in this August, said in the statement. 
 
 The TSA said in the statement that the classified briefing was “to discuss the results of the most recent OIG covert testing at airport security checkpoints." 
 
 In 2015, the then-acting head of the TSA, Melvin Carraway, was reassigned after an internal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security found sceening failures at dozens of the nation's busiest airports. 
 
 Screeners did not detect 95 percent of test items in that investigation. The breaches allowed undercover investigators to smuggle weapons, fake explosives and other contraband through numerous checkpoints. 
 
 The briefing and committee hearing on Wednesday came nine days after a terrorist attack in New York City involving a truck left eight people dead. The suspect allegedly told investigators he was motivated by videos from the terror group Islamic State. 
 
 McCaul called America’s aviation sector the "crown jewel of terrorist targets" and said, "America’s enemies only have to be right once, while we have to be right 100 percent." 
 
 Pekoske told Congressional members that the agency is prototyping two CT scan systems at checkpoints right now — the devices are already used for checked bags — that could give screeners greater ability to identify suspicious substances. He said the devices would be a "significant enhancement" over devices currently used at checkpoints. 
 
 Passengers load their items into bins to be scanned as they pass through security at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on December 18, 2015 in Fort Lauderdale. File Wilfredo Lee / AP 
 
 The devices have been used for checked bags but not checkpoints because they were too large and heavy for checkpoints until recently, Pekoske said. The prototype systems are in Phoenix and Boston, he said. 
 
 Pekoske said that "to invest in the CT technology requires funding above what TSA currently has," but the agency wasn't on the path to CT development at checkpoints when the budget was developed, so the program wasn't reviewed for investment. 
 
 Committee member Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., noted that $1.28 billion, being charged to the public through surcharges, is being taken away for deficit reduction. 
 
 "Certainly, additional investment would make travelers, whether they’re Americans or people visiting our country, safer," Pekoske said. 
 
 Pekoske also acknowledged that poor morale at the TSA continues to be a challenge. Ranking committee member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said at the hearing that it "has consistently struggled with low morale across the workforce, ranking 303 out of 305 government agencies in 2016." ||||| An undercover operation has revealed that Transportation Security Administration screenings at airports fail for the most part. 
 
 Homeland Security investigators found that, more than 70 percent of the time, undercover officers were able to get through TSA checkpoints with mock knives, guns and explosives, the House Homeland Security Committee was told Wednesday. Just two years ago, testing found a 95 percent failure rate, reports CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave. 
 
 "We found that briefing disturbing," said Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. 
 
 The DHS Office of Inspector General made eight classified recommendations based on the undercover operation. In a statement, the TSA said it took the "OIG findings very seriously and are implementing measures that will improve screening effectiveness at checkpoints." 
 
 Both members of Congress and the TSA support replacing old check point scanners with new CT scanners like the ones we were first to show you back in March. 
 
 "In this system, we use high power algorithms to detect explosives," said Mark Laustra of Analogic, a company developing the technology. 
 
 TSA administrator David Pekoske told Congress the CT technology is the most effective way to keep passengers safe, but the cost is a major hurdle. 
 
 "To invest in the CT technology requires funding above what TSA currently has," Pekoske said. 
 
 Frank Cilluffo, a former director of the Homeland Security advisory council, said as long as terrorists target airports, the TSA cannot be complacent. 
 
 "They're looking for vulnerabilities that can be exploited, and we need to make sure that we can push that as far as we can to minimize the risk," Cilluffo said. 
 
 
 
 The TSA launched a pilot program this summer with those CT scanners, a year behind schedule, announcing last week an additional $4 million investment in the technology. American Airlines even bought some of the machines to speed up their limited deployment.
– An alarming new report weeks before the busiest air travel days of the year finds that TSA agents at airport checkpoints miss test weapons, explosives, and other contraband items most of the time. During an undercover operation, Department of Homeland Security inspectors "identified vulnerabilities with TSA's screener performance, screening equipment, and associated procedures," DHS says in a statement. While the specific findings are classified, CBS News reports the failure rate is more than 70%, while a source tells ABC News that 80% is "in the ballpark." That means the TSA has only improved slightly from its 95% failure rate in 2015, which led to a host of changes at the agency, including a new training academy for agents. "America's enemies only have to be right once, while we have to be right 100%," said Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, after he was briefed on the "disturbing" report Wednesday, per NBC News. After vowing to adopt eight undisclosed recommendations laid out in the report, TSA administrator David Pekoske responded that CT scan systems used for checked bags would provide a "significant enhancement" at checkpoints. He added, however, that the funding isn't there. "We have the technology and resources to do it but we're not doing it because ... we're paying for a wall," countered Rep. William Keating, a Democrat, who says that $1.28 billion in ticket surcharges is being diverted away from the TSA to pay the national debt.