HR 4179
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4179
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an appeal
and redress process for individuals wrongly delayed or prohibited from
boarding a flight, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 14, 2007
Ms. CLARKE (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. JACKSON-LEE
of Texas, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. CARNEY, Ms. NORTON, Mr. AL GREEN of Texas,
Mr. PASCRELL, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. CUELLAR, and Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of
California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Homeland Security
A BILL
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an appeal
and redress process for individuals wrongly delayed or prohibited from
boarding a flight, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely Redress
Act of 2007' or the `FAST Redress Act of 2007'.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF APPEAL AND REDRESS PROCESS FOR INDIVIDUALS
WRONGLY DELAYED OR PROHIBITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT, OR DENIED A RIGHT,
BENEFIT, OR PRIVILEGE.
(a) In General- Subtitle H of title VIII of the Homeland Security Act
of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following
new section:
`SEC. 890A. APPEAL AND REDRESS PROCESS FOR PASSENGERS WRONGLY DELAYED
OR PROHIBITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT.
`(a) Establishment- The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish
a timely and fair process for individuals who believe they have been delayed
or prohibited from boarding a commercial aircraft or denied a right, benefit,
or privilege because they were wrongly identified as a threat under the
regimes, including the Terrorist Screening Database, utilized by the Transportation
Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection,
or any other office or component of the Department of Homeland Security.
`(b) Office of Appeals and Redress-
`(1) ESTABLISHMENT- The Secretary shall establish in the Department
an Office of Appeals and Redress to implement, coordinate, and execute
the process established by the Secretary pursuant to subsection (a).
The Office shall include representatives from the Transportation Security
Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, and such
other offices and components of the Department as the Secretary determines
appropriate.
`(2) COMPREHENSIVE CLEARED LIST- The process established by the Secretary
pursuant to subsection (a) shall include the establishment of a method
by which the Office, under the direction of the Secretary, will be able
to maintain a comprehensive list of individuals who have been misidentified
and have corrected erroneous information, to be known as the `Comprehensive
Cleared List'.
`(3) INFORMATION- To prevent repeated delays of a misidentified passenger
or other individual denied a right, benefit, or privilege, the Office
shall ensure that the Comprehensive Cleared List contains information
determined by the Secretary to authenticate the identity of such a passenger
or individual.
`(4) USE OF COMPREHENSIVE CLEARED LIST- The Secretary shall--
`(A) transmit to the Transportation Security Administration, United
States Customs and Border Protection, or any other appropriate office
or component of the Department, other Federal, State, local, and Tribal
entities, and domestic air carriers and foreign air carriers that
use the Terrorist Screening Database the Comprehensive Cleared List
and any other information the Secretary determines necessary to resolve
misidentifications and improve the administration of the advanced
passenger prescreening system and reduce the number of false positives;
and
`(B) ensure that the Comprehensive Cleared List is taken into account
by all appropriate offices or components of the Department when assessing
the security risk of an individual.
`(5) INTERGOVERNMENTAL EFFORTS- The Secretary may--
`(A) enter into memoranda of understanding with other Federal agencies,
as necessary, to improve appeal and redress processes; and
`(B) work with other Federal, State, local, and Tribal authorities
that use the Terrorist Screening Database to ensure, to the greatest
extent practicable, that the Comprehensive Cleared List is taken into
account when assessing the security risk of an individual.
`(6) HANDLING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION- The Secretary,
in conjunction with the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department, shall--
`(A) require that Federal employees of the Department handling personally
identifiable information of individuals (in this paragraph referred
to as `PII') complete mandatory privacy and security training prior
to being authorized to handle PII;
`(B) ensure that the information maintained under this subsection
is secured by encryption, one-way hashing, other data anonymization
techniques, or such other equivalent technical security protections
as the Secretary determines necessary;
`(C) limit the information collected from misidentified passengers
or other individuals to the minimum amount necessary to resolve a
redress request;
`(D) ensure that the information maintained under this subsection
is shared or transferred via a secure data network that has been audited
to ensure that the anti-hacking and other security related software
functions properly and is updated as necessary;
`(E) ensure that any employee of the Department receiving the information
maintained under this subsection handles such information in accordance
with the section 552a of title 5, United States Code, and the Federal
Information Security Management Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-296);
`(F) only retain the information maintained under this subsection
for as long as needed to assist the individual traveler in the redress
process; and
`(G) conduct and publish a privacy impact assessment of the appeal
and redress process established under section and transmit the assessment
to the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives,
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate,
and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the
Senate.
`(7) INITIATION OF REDRESS PROCESS AT AIRPORTS- The Office shall establish
at each airport at which the Department has a significant presence a
process to provide information to air carrier passengers to begin the
redress process established pursuant to subsection (a).
`(8) REPORT TO CONGRESS- Not later than 240 days after the date of the
enactment of this section, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee
on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the Committee
on Homeland Security and Government Affairs of the Senate on a report
on the status of information sharing among users at the Department of
the Terrorist Screening Database. The report shall include the following
information:
`(A) A description of processes and status of implementation of this
section to share the Comprehensive Cleared List with all Department
components and other Federal, State, local, and Tribal authorities
that utilize the Terrorist Screening Database.
`(B) A description of the extent to which Department components other
than the Transportation Security Administration are taking into account
the Comprehensive Cleared List.
`(C) Data on the number of individuals who have successfully obtained
redress through the Office of Appeals and Redress.
`(D) An assessment of what impact information sharing of the Comprehensive
Cleared List has had on misidentifications of individuals who have
successfully obtained redress through the Office of Appeals and Redress.'.
(b) Conforming Amendment- Title 49, United States Code, is amended by
striking section 44926 (and the item relating to such section in the analysis
for chapter 449 of title 49).
(c) Clerical Amendment- Section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002
(6 U.S.C. 101(b)) is amended by adding after the item relating to section
890 the following new item:
`890A. Appeal and redress process for passengers wrongly delayed or
prohibited from boarding a flight.'.
END
