[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4179 Introduced in House (IH)]







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.''.
                                 <all>