Members of Congress are decrying the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to sign a $50 million contract to buy uniforms just a week before sequestration took effect. 
 
 TSA defends the deal — noting that its old contract had expired, and saying that without a new one it couldn’t have continued buying uniforms for airport screeners. And the agency says $50 million is a ceiling, not the amount it intends to spend on uniforms in the next year. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 But the optics of such a big, badly timed contract are horrible, lawmakers said Wednesday. 
 
 “When we’re losing essential services and they’re closing down or threatening to close down all sorts of important government activities, to have them cut the deal on $50 million for uniforms is absolutely outrageous,” John Mica (R-Fla.) told POLITICO. 
 
 Mica, a former House Transportation chairman, is a frequent critic of TSA and now helms an Oversight panel with broad jurisdiction over government spending. He said he’s “working feverishly” on digging into TSA’s finances. 
 
 Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), another TSA critic, said in a statement that “I find it deeply disturbing that as [Homeland Security] Secretary [Janet] Napolitano is running around scaring people by saying she is going to have to furlough employees because of sequester, that she would also spend $50 million of taxpayer money on new uniforms. This is a classic failure in leadership.” 
 
 Republicans aren’t the only ones raising questions. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, disputed TSA’s assertion that the contract couldn’t have been handled differently. 
 
 Thompson said he has been looking into the department’s contracting as a whole and whether it could be done more efficiently. He said the uniform contract is “one of many” incidents that have raised eyebrows. 
 
 “Contracting as usual doesn’t necessarily say that it couldn’t have been done better,” Thompson said. “As you know, DHS as a whole has been criticized because of the management and purchasing that they do.” 
 
 The contract issue comes while the agency is still defending its move to allow small knives on planes — but not full-size toiletries like toothpaste or shampoo. ||||| Some family members of victims killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks said Wednesday that they are outraged by the Transportation Security Administration's decision to let passengers carry pocketknives on planes. 
 
 FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2006, file photo, knives of all sizes and types are piled in a box at the State of Georgia Surplus Property Division store in Tucker, Ga., and are just a few of the hundreds of... (Associated Press) 
 
 TSA Administrator John Pistole announced Tuesday that airline passengers will be able to carry pocketknives with blades less than 2.36 inches long and less than half an inch wide. Souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment also will be permitted starting next month. 
 
 The agency said the policy aligns the U.S. with international standards and allows the TSA to concentrate on more serious safety threats. 
 
 Unions representing flight attendants and other airline workers decried the change, and several relatives of people killed when terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, criticized the move as well. 
 
 "I'm flabbergasted," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Center. "I'm really disgusted by this latest news." 
 
 Regenhard said she recently had a container of yogurt confiscated by the TSA because it was a gel. "I'm just wondering why a yogurt is more dangerous than a penknife or a golf club," she said. 
 
 Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, said a pocketknife can be just as deadly as a box cutter, like the ones the hijackers used. Box cutters will still be banned under the new rules. 
 
 "When you're drawing a blade against someone's neck, they're quite lethal," Burlingame said. "This is bad news." 
 
 Burlingame said Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told interrogators that the hijackers each used "a Swiss knife," a brand of pocketknife, to butcher a sheep and a camel as part of their training. The transcript of the 2003 interrogation was part of the 9/11 Commission Report. 
 
 Burlingame suspects the TSA decided to allow folding knives because they are hard to spot. She said the agency's employees "have a difficult time seeing these knives on X-ray screening, which lowers their performance testing rates." 
 
 Asked to respond, a TSA spokesman reiterated that "the decision to permit these items as carry-on was made as part of TSA's overall risk-based security approach and aligns TSA with international standards." 
 
 Several relatives of those who died on United Flight 93, whose passengers tried to wrest control of the plane before it crashed in Shanksville, Pa., questioned the policy change. 
 
 "What's the difference between a pocketknife and a box cutter, for crying out loud?" asked David Beamer, whose son Todd led the Flight 93 revolt with the words, "Let's roll." "I cannot see the upside to this." 
 
 Alice Hoagland, whose son Mark Bingham was another leader of the attempt to take back Flight 93, called it "a dreadful mistake to loosen the rules." 
 
 "We are increasing the chances of flight attendants and passengers being attacked while in the air," said Hoagland, a retired flight attendant. "This decision was made in order to make the TSA look a little better, to ease up on the standard so they won't have egg on their face." 
 
 Hamilton Peterson, who lost his father and stepmother on Fight 93, said, "I have enormous respect for the great work of the TSA; however, I am concerned this may undermine overall counterterrorism vigilance and may well prove to be dangerous to future passengers and crew who will inherit the danger resulting from this decision."
– Just a week before the sequester kicked in, the TSA signed a deal to spend $50 million on new uniforms, reports Politico. The agency calls the uniforms a necessity, but for many on Capitol Hill it was just another sign of the TSA's cluelessness. "When we’re losing essential services and they’re closing down or threatening to close down all sorts of important government activities, to have them cut the deal on $50 million for uniforms is absolutely outrageous,” complains a Florida Republican. The TSA's recent announcement that it will allow small knives on flights—but still not full size shampoos and toiletries—is also angering many, including the families of people killed on 9/11, reports the AP. "I'm really disgusted by this latest news," said a woman whose firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Center. Given that the 9/11 hijacks used simple box cutters, others suspect the next rules were made more for TSA screeners' convenience than safety. The agency's employees "have a difficult time seeing these knives on X-ray screening, which lowers their performance testing rates," said a woman whose brother was pilot on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Also upset, according to the Consumerist: Air marshals and flight attendants, who are both appealing the decision. "Flight attendants are going to be sitting ducks," says a top air marshal.