Empower Oversight president Tristan Leavitt made the following comment after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the Quiet Skies program would be ending.
“Since TSA launched Quiet Skies as we know it in 2018, Air Marshals have again and again exposed the abuses of this wasteful program—especially as the Biden Administration took its weaponization to a whole new level. Thank you to Congress for taking their disclosures seriously, and to this new Administration for ending Quiet Skies once and for all. This is truly a testament to what courageous whistleblowers can accomplish. They had leak investigations thrown at them and were ignored for far too long, and eventually truth won.”
Background:
In Spring 2022, Empower Oversight helped a TSA whistleblower filing disclosures with the Office of Special Counsel informing them that his chain of command knew his wife had been falsely listed as a domestic terrorist who entered the U.S. Capitol.
After the OSC failed to forward the disclosures to the DHS Inspector General (DHS IG), Empower Oversight assisted the whistleblower in sending the disclosure directly to the DHS IG.
In January 2023, the DHS IG indicated that the allegations would be looked into.
In August 2024, after additional whistleblowers came forward to Empower Oversight and made protected disclosures regarding abuses in the program, Empower Oversight asked the DHS IG to conduct oversight of all Federal Air Marshals Service surveillance programs, including Quiet Skies.
On August 14, 2014, Empower Oversight sent a letter to the House and Senate committees of jurisdiction over TSA outlining specific abuses about the surveillance of former member of Congress and current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
FAMS Director Brian Belcher, during a May 21, 2025, townhall with the agency’s Washington Field Office, reportedly justified the surveillance of Ms. Gabbard, stating, “No one is above the law.” His remarks contradicted the classified nature of the Quiet Skies program, which operates without public accountability or clear legal standards, and has raised concerns about politically motivated surveillance.
Last week, on May 29, Empower Oversight asked Noem to produce additional records about its Federal Air Marshals Service surveillance programs and pressed her to bring transparency and accountability to the programs.