[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 26 (Monday, February 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E219-E220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FAST REDRESS ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. CANDICE S. MILLER

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 3, 2009

  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support 
of H.R. 559, the FAST Redress Act of 2009. This bill requires the 
Homeland Security Secretary to create a timely and fair process for 
individuals who believe they were delayed or prohibited from boarding a 
commercial aircraft, or entering the country because they were wrongly 
identified as a threat when screened against any terrorist watch list 
or database used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), 
Customs and Border Protection, or any other component of the Department 
of Homeland Security.
  We have heard many news reports of people whose names are similar to 
those on the watch list, detained for hours at border crossings and 
airports, all because their name is the same or similar to a person 
with suspected terrorist ties.
  The Fast Redress Act would set up a dedicated office within 
Department of Homeland

[[Page E220]]

Security to coordinate and streamline the process of appeal for 
individuals who believe they have been wrongly placed on a government 
watch list and consequently remanded to secondary screening.
  This office would then create and share a ``Cleared List'' of 
individuals who have gone through the redress process and that list 
would be disseminated to all components of DHS--preventing the same 
individuals from being stopped by multiple government agencies.
  My home state of Michigan is home to the first and second busiest 
border crossings on the northern tier of the nation, where thousands of 
people cross the border into Canada every single day.
  Detroit Metropolitan Airport is also a hub for Northwest Airlines and 
is one of the busiest airports in the nation.
  When you combine the fact that southeast Michigan is home to one of 
the largest Arabic populations in America, the vast majority of whom 
are law abiding and patriotic Americans, with the important 
international travel corridors that exist in our community, far too 
many of my constituents have been needlessly inconvenienced without the 
goal of security being advanced.
  Unfortunately, my office has been contacted by numerous people who 
were mistakenly detained, often at gunpoint, because their name 
mistakenly appeared on the terrorist watch list.
  Now, American citizens will have a process to permanently clear their 
names, and spread that information throughout the DHS and others who 
use the watch list. And that will make it a more effective tool to keep 
our nation safe.
  We must ensure that our CBP officers and TSA agents spend their 
limited time, manpower and resources on genuine threats to our 
security; scrubbing the watch list is an important first step to making 
sure that happens.

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