Transportation Security Administrator John Pistole, to the irritation of lawmakers, refused to appear at a House hearing on how Americans tend not to like dealing with his agency when traveling.

“Sadly the TSA Administrator is stonewalling this committee and refuses to work with us, and that’s part of the problem with this agency,” House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., said in a statement after today’s hearing.  “He and other agency officials are protecting one the biggest government bureaucracies, which has grown now to more than 66,000 employees.”

The hearing considered several aspects of the TSA’s performance, including consumer advocacy surveys such as the one that “found that aviation passengers were more likely to take one or more additional trips each year if the security screening process were to be made more efficient and friendly,” according to the committee.

Pistole signaled his intentions Tuesday. “By U.S. House of Representatives rules which state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), no representative from TSA will be present at the Subcommittee on Aviation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29,” Pistole said in a statement Tuesday.