Whereas the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States—
(1)found that
[t]argeting travel is at least as powerful a weapon against terrorists
as targeting their money
; and
(2)recommended that
the United States combine terrorist travel intelligence, operations, and
law enforcement in a strategy to intercept terrorist, find terrorist travel
facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility
;
Whereas terrorists continue to target international travel
to the United States, as evidenced by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempt to
detonate a bomb on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on December 25, 2009, en
route from Amsterdam to Detroit;
Whereas Congress responded to the attacks of September 11,
2001, by mandating that all air carriers flying into the United States provide
passenger name record (referred to in this resolution as PNR) data
concerning all inbound passengers to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to
assist the Department of Homeland Security in fulfilling its missions of
protecting the border and enhancing border security;
Whereas there is bipartisan agreement on the need to
collect and share passenger travel data, which—
(1)has served as a
cornerstone for interdicting terrorists by the administrations of President
Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush; and
(2)continues to
fulfill the mandate for increased information sharing set by Congress
in—
(A)the Aviation and
Transportation Security Act (Public Law 107–71);
(B)the Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108–458);
(C)the Implementing
Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Public Law 110–53);
and
(D)other laws
requiring information sharing internationally and within the United States
Government to promote greater security;
Whereas the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11
Commission Act of 2007 required nations to enter into information sharing
agreements with the United States in order to qualify for the United States
visa waiver program;
Whereas security and intelligence experts recognize
that—
(1)advance
information about travelers is a critical tool in identifying high-risk
passengers; and
(2)the intelligence
gained from the analysis of passenger travel data is critical for—
(A)protecting the
United States against terrorists entering the United States; and
(B)preventing
terrorists from boarding international flights bound for the United
States;
Whereas the Agreement Between the United States of America
and the European Union on the Processing and Transfer of Passenger Name Record
(PNR) Data by Air Carriers to the United States Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), done at Brussels and Washington on July 23 and 26, 2007 (referred to in
this resolution as the EU-U.S. PNR Agreement
)—
(1)succeeded a
series of agreements between 2002 and October 2006;
(2)was intended to
remain in effect until 2014; and
(3)complied with
European Union and United States privacy laws by providing assurances that the
United States would use PNR data for limited purposes;
Whereas PNR data gathered pursuant to the EU-U.S. PNR
Agreement has been used to identify and arrest a number of dangerous
terrorists, including—
(1)David Headley,
who was planning an attack on Denmark and who contributed to the tragedy in
Mumbai; and
(2)Faisal Shahzad,
who was attempting to flee the country after attempting to set off a car-bomb
in Times Square.
Whereas PNR data has been used to prevent the travel of
many other individuals considered to be national security threats or otherwise
inadmissible to the United States;
Whereas the privacy protections in the current EU-U.S. PNR
Agreement are robust, and a February 2010 joint review by both signatories
found no privacy violations, misuse, or injury from the collection of PNR data
by the Department of Homeland Security;
Whereas although the United States and the European Union
have different governing mechanisms that lead to differences in how oversight
is conducted, both governments have a firm commitment to the protection of data
and the respect of individual privacy;
Whereas in February 2011, the European Commission proposed
that the European Union create its own PNR system in order to identify
potential terrorists and other dangerous criminals;
Whereas in 2010, the Washington Post—
(1)recognized the
important role that PNR data plays in securing international aviation;
and
(2)recommended that
data sharing should not be restricted without demonstrating specific problems
with the operation of current agreement: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)acknowledges the
grave threat posed by terrorists and other dangerous criminals who seek to
exploit international aviation to do harm to our countries;
(2)urges the
Department of Homeland Security to reject any efforts by the European Union to
modify existing PNR data sharing mechanisms in a way that would degrade the
usefulness of the PNR data for identifying terrorists and other dangerous
criminals;
(3)urges the
Department of Homeland Security to not enter into any agreement that would
impose European oversight structures on the United States; and
(4)opposes any
effort by the European Union to interfere with counterterrorism cooperation and
information sharing between the Department of Homeland Security and
non-European countries.