Noem suggests size of liquid containers requirement for flights may be changed

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested that the maximum size of liquid containers for carry-on luggage for flights may be changed in the future.

Noem said at the Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday that such a change was one of the things that the Transportation Security Administration is considering.

“But I will tell you — I mean the liquids — I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be,” Noem said. “We’re looking at, you know, our scanners.” 

The secretary's comments come the week after she announced that TSA is ending its requirement for travelers to remove their shoes at airports nationwide.

Liquids, aerosols, creams, gels, and pastes must currently be in containers that hold less than 3.4 ounces for carry-on bags to get through airport security.

Noem also said, “Well, hopefully the future of an airport where I’m looking to go is that you walk in the door with your carry-on suitcase, you walk through a scanner and go right to your flight,” adding that it could take just “one” minute to get to the gate. 

She later added that she is “working with several different companies with technologies to give us competitive bids on what they actually do. You will see us pilot this at a couple of airports before it gets implemented nationwide.”

"[I]t’s not certainly anything we’ll be announcing in the next week or two, but we’re working to see what we can do to make the traveling experience much better and more hospitable for individuals, but also still keep safety standards,” Noem later told The Hill.

The former South Dakota governor also said at the summit that TSA needed to put in place a “multi-layered screening process that allows us to change some of how we do security and screening so it is still safe.”

“It is still a process that is protecting people who are traveling on our airlines. But it has to make sense. It has to actually do something to make you safer,” she explained. 

“I don’t think that was questioned under the Biden administration. It was — I kept wondering if we were doing things just to slow people down, or what it was, but TSA is working on the technology that at we have available to us if we deploy it correctly,” Noem added.