Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) – a member of the House Tea Party Caucus – responded Wednesday to a challenge by Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole to review the agency’s financial records, The Hill reports.

“As you know, TSA has more than 65,000 employees and his spent nearly $57 billion since its creation in 2001 following the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” the Georgia congressman wrote in a letter to Pistole.

“While your agency was originally intended to disseminate intelligence information and establish security standards, over the last ten years, it has morphed into a full-time, massive bureaucracy that is larger than the U.S. Departments of Labor, Energy, Education and Housing and Urban Development and State combined,” he continued.

Broun wrote the letter in response to an offer Pistole made in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg News, in which Pistole said critics of the TSA’s management were misguided.

“Those who say that we’re inefficient or bloated, I’d be glad to sit down and go through the books and say, ‘OK, how would you staff this differently?’” Pistole said in the interview.

“I absolutely agree that your priority at TSA is ensuring the highest level of safety possible for all airline passengers, but I believe you can still accomplish that while making certain the agency is a good steward of taxpayer dollars,” Broun wrote.