Tammy Duckworth

How do you feel about being able to keep your shoes on at TSA checkpoints?

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, said she believes it's a security risk and is demanding Homeland Security brings back its "Shoes-Off" travel policy.

"Secretary Noem’s decision to implement a shoes on policy on July 8, 2025, likely without meaningful consultation with TSA, was a reckless act,” Duckworth wrote in a letter Friday to Ha Nguyen McNeill, the senior official performing the duties of the administrator for the Transportation Security Administration.

When former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended the "Shoes-Off" policy last July, the department highlighted the policy change as a way to cut down wait times.

"It's important that we find ways to keep people safe but also streamline and make the process more enjoyable for every single person," Noem said in July 2025.

In Duckworth's letter, she told TSA that testing by the DHS inspector general found certain 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.”

The policy dates back to the failed "Shoe Bomber" terrorist attack in 2001, when a man snuck an explosive onto a plane by hiding it in his shoe.

"The 'Shoes-Off' policy began with the Shoe Bomber over two decades ago, and the TSA has tended to be very reactive and responsive to any time a threat would emerge," said Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, who researches avation security and screenings.

Jacobson points out TSA precheck passengers have been able to keep their shoes on.

"That background check is sufficient to warrant that they don't need to take their shoes off and they go through a less aggressive form of technology. The question is for the average traveler who's going through a standard screening lane: Is that appropriate? I don't know what the answer is because I haven't seen the data, but I would like to know how the decision was made," Jacobson said.

Last summer, DHS cited its "cutting-edge technological advancements and multi-layered security approach." NBC 5 Chicago asked what those advancements were but has not heard back.