The prospective leader of the Transportation Security Administration declined to say whether he would support collective bargaining rights for TSA employees at his confirmation hearing last week.

The nominee, Erroll Southers, the assistant chief of homeland security and intelligence for the Los Angeles World Airport Police Department, pledged to review the issue and said he would talk to a cross-section of stakeholders, including employees, before making a decision.

"I want to protect employees, but our mission is security," Southers told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"I want to review this matter without compromising the security mission," Southers said. "I would not endorse, recommend or suggest to the secretary anything that would compromise our mission or suggest that we would bargain on security."

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in September passed a bill that would grant TSA employees collective bargaining rights. A companion bill has not been introduced in the Senate.

In written responses to prepared questions from the Senate committee, Southers elaborated further on TSA's human resources issues. Southers promised to talk with stakeholders about TSA's pay-for-performance system before making any recommendations to DHS leadership about what, if anything, should change.

Southers also acknowledged the low level of job satisfaction TSA employees reported through the Partnership for Public Service's human capital survey. He promised to improve communications with staff by discussing TSA workforce issues at in-person forums and by tapping a suite of Web-based tools TSA uses to engage employees, including "IdeaFactory," an internal site where employees suggest ideas to TSA leadership and the TSA community at large, Webcasts to staff, internal newsletters, and the TSA blog.