The Senate confirmed John S. Pistole as the new head of the nation's agency that is also charged with protecting transportation systems including school buses.

Pistole took office this month after being approved on June 25. President Obama nominated the former deputy director of the FBI for the TSA post on May 17. Pistole, a 26-year veteran of the FBI, oversees more than 60,000 TSA employees. Post 9/11, he was in charge of the FBI's expanded counter-terrorism program and in 2004 became the agency's executive director of counter-terrorism and counterintelligence.

More recently, he investigated the failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May and the failed terrorist attack on board Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day last year.

A statement said that TSA will continue to grow as "a risk-based, intelligence driven agency dedicated to protecting our transportation systems. Pistole is expected to be the TSA administrator on the watch when Congress finally releases results of TSA's school bus terrorism threat assessment, which was completed earlier this year.

The Office of Highway and Motor Carrier at TSA, led by GM William Arrington, is responsible for the First Observer program that seeks to recruit commercial bus and truck drivers as "eyes and ears" on the road to help report suspicious activity. A train-the-trainer program conducted by Jeff Beatty offers a special three-hour training session to STN EXPO registrants on July 28.