[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 111 (Monday, July 11, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4595-H4597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1530
       AIRPORT PERIMETER AND ACCESS CONTROL SECURITY ACT OF 2016

  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 5056) to modernize and enhance airport perimeter and access 
control security by requiring updated risk assessments and the 
development of security strategies, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

[[Page H4596]]

  


                               H.R. 5056

       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 ``Airport Perimeter and Access 
     Control Security Act of 2016''.

     SEC. 2. RISK ASSESSMENTS OF AIRPORT SECURITY.

       (a) In General.--The Administrator of the Transportation 
     Security Administration (TSA) shall--
       (1) not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment 
     of this Act, update the Transportation Sector Security Risk 
     Assessment (TSSRA) for the aviation sector; and
       (2) not later than 90 days after such date--
       (A) update with the latest and most currently available 
     intelligence information the Comprehensive Risk Assessment of 
     Perimeter and Access Control Security (in this Act referred 
     to as the ``Risk Assessment of Airport Security'') and 
     determine a regular timeframe and schedule for further 
     updates to such Risk Assessment of Airport Security; and
       (B) conduct a system-wide assessment of airport access 
     control points and airport perimeter security.
       (b) Contents.--The security risk assessments required under 
     subsection (a)(2) shall--
       (1) include updates reflected in the TSSRA and Joint 
     Vulnerability Assessment (JVA) findings;
       (2) reflect changes to the risk environment relating to 
     airport access control points and airport perimeters;
       (3) use security event data for specific analysis of 
     system-wide trends related to airport access control points 
     and airport perimeter security to better inform risk 
     management decisions; and
       (4) take into consideration the unique geography of and 
     current best practices used by airports to mitigate potential 
     vulnerabilities.
       (c) Report.--The Administrator of the Transportation 
     Security Administration shall report to the Committee on 
     Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and the 
     Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and 
     the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
     Senate, relevant Federal departments and agencies, and 
     airport operators on the results of the security risk 
     assessments required under subsection (a).

     SEC. 3. AIRPORT SECURITY STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT.

       (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
     the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 
     Transportation Security Administration shall update the 2012 
     National Strategy for Airport Perimeter and Access Control 
     Security (in this section referred to as the ``National 
     Strategy'').
       (b) Contents.--The update to the National Strategy required 
     under subsection (a) shall include--
       (1) information from the Risk Assessment of Airport 
     Security; and
       (2) information on--
       (A) airport security-related activities;
       (B) the status of TSA efforts to address the goals and 
     objectives referred to in subsection (a);
       (C) finalized outcome-based performance measures and 
     performance levels for each relevant activity and goal and 
     objective under subparagraphs (A) and (B); and
       (D) input from airport operators.
       (c) Updates.--Not later than 90 days after the update is 
     completed under subsection (a), the Administrator of the 
     Transportation Security Administration shall implement a 
     process for determining when additional updates to the 
     strategy referred to in such subsection are needed.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Keating) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania.


                             General Leave

  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include 
any extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5056, the Airport Perimeter 
and Access Control Security Act, sponsored by Congressman Bill Keating.
  In recent months, we have seen attacks at airports and aircraft 
overseas and, in every instance, the integrity and effectiveness of the 
airport security infrastructure and the insider threat has been 
concerning. For this reason, we must scrutinize the security of our 
Nation's airports and ensure that the public has confidence that their 
travels will be safe and secure in this high-threat environment.
  Specifically, H.R. 5056 directs the TSA to update its official risk 
assessment for the aviation sector to reflect the latest available 
threat intelligence. Moreover, the bill mandates that TSA's 
comprehensive risk assessment of perimeter and access control security 
is more regularly updated and that TSA conducts a sectorwide assessment 
of airport access control vulnerabilities and mitigation efforts.
  All of this information is required for an updated national strategy 
for airport perimeter and access control security, which TSA has failed 
to update since 2012, despite multiple access controls and perimeter 
security breaches at airports across the country.
  As this bill demonstrates, we cannot focus solely on the 
effectiveness of our passenger screening checkpoints while allowing lax 
security around the airport perimeter and within the sterile areas of 
airports.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Keating for introducing this 
critical legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support this 
bipartisan bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise today in strong support of my legislation, H.R. 5056, the 
Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) for his 
hard work in the Committee on Homeland Security where we are 
colleagues, as well as his work trying to keep our Nation's security 
and our airport security at its highest level.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill was a long time coming. Since I was first 
elected to Congress in 2010, I have worked hard to secure our Nation's 
airports.
  The last case I had when I was a district attorney before entering 
Congress was the case of a young 16-year-old who had secreted himself 
on a commercial airliner penetrating the perimeter of the Charlotte-
Douglas International Airport and, undetected, stowed himself away in 
the wheel well. Tragically, he went from North Carolina, and his body 
was found in Massachusetts in the district I represented.
  As we investigated the cause of that death, we found out what the 
circumstances were that he had penetrated all the security. In fact, I 
sent my investigators down from Massachusetts to look at that. Even 
knowing that this had occurred, there was no record, videowise or 
otherwise, of what he had done. So even looking backwards, we couldn't 
even find out where the security was breached until we made the 
conclusions at the end of our investigation and looked at the perimeter 
of that airport and how vulnerable that was.
  Since that time, I have demanded information on areas of perimeter 
and access security in our airports. Frankly, not satisfied with the 
progress in addressing these security issues, I requested an 
independent review in 2014 of all airports with a Transportation 
Security Administration presence.
  Released this spring, this independent report by the GAO found that 
while TSA has made some progress in assessing risks to airport 
perimeter and access control security, the agency had not taken new or 
emerging threats into consideration, as well as the unique makeup of 
individual airports, the points of access at those individual airports, 
and the unique perimeters surrounding those airports.
  Updating the risk to our airports with information that reflects the 
current threat ensures that the TSA bases its risk management decisions 
on current information and focuses its limited resources on the highest 
priority risks to each airport.
  Further, GAO found that TSA has not comprehensively assessed the 
vulnerability of commercial airports systemwide. In fact, from 2009 to 
2015, TSA conducted these comprehensive assessments at only 81 of the 
437 commercial airports nationwide or 19 percent. And that is 
cumulatively. Some years, that assessment only occurred in 3 percent of 
the airports. This legislation will make permanent the recommendations 
from this independent report.
  Specifically, the bill requires TSA to update transportation security 
sector risk assessments for the entire aviation sector. It requires it 
to update the

[[Page H4597]]

comprehensive risk assessment perimeter access control with the most 
currently available intelligence. It requires that it conduct a 
thorough assessment of airport perimeters and access control points, 
such as the unique geography each individual airport entails. And it 
determines a future strategy of regular updates.
  Further, the bill incorporates the input of major airport operators, 
which we met with here in D.C. with the Committee on Homeland Security. 
We heard firsthand their concern of the lack of an individualized 
security strategy.
  A recent report of the Associated Press investigation found that 
intruders breach airport fences approximately every 10 days. 
Altogether, there were at least 39 breaches nationwide in 2015, which 
was also the annual average from 2012 to 2015. TSA's own calculation 
over a 10-year period ending in 2011 showed 1,300 perimeter breaches in 
the 450 domestic airports, but that figure does not account for 
continued perimeter security breaches since 2011, including stowaways, 
trespassing across tarmacs, scaling of perimeter fences, and driving 
vehicles through barriers across airport property.
  The landscape in which terrorists operate is constantly changing and 
it is challenging. We have to stay ahead of it. We have to look no 
further than the recent attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Istanbul to see 
what the threats are within access points and perimeters of airports. 
We were lucky here in the U.S. that the individuals that breach these 
access points and perimeters did not have the same nefarious 
intentions, but that doesn't mitigate the risk. It doesn't mitigate the 
fact that these people pose dangerous behavior potentially to our 
airports, to our employees and, of course, the passengers and travelers 
who rely on TSA officers and airport operators for their security.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5056.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, as I said, the attacks on airports currently in Europe 
show the challenging terrorist attack efforts that are currently a 
threat here in the United States. This bipartisan legislation will 
close loopholes in our airport security practices and procedures and 
bring us closer to ensuring that access control points and perimeters 
of all design are as secure as possible.
  Passage of this bill is an important step in the safety for 
passengers, pilots, and airport employees as well.
  I thank the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security's 
Transportation Security Subcommittee, Mr. Katko; our ranking member, 
Miss Rice; full committee ranking member, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi; 
Mr. King; Mr. Richmond; Mr. Swalwell; and Mrs. Torres for joining me 
and supporting this legislation.

  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5056.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I thank my colleague from Massachusetts for his well-thought-out, 
well-placed, and long-overdue legislation. It makes me think of my time 
serving in the United States military as an airfield commander charged 
with many things, including the security of the airfield.
  Knowing that our adversaries, at any level, whether it is on the 
civilian side or the military side, continuously probe and look for 
ways to thwart us in our efforts to maintain our security, ever 
changing their tactics, techniques, and procedures--you can see from 
the recent attacks where they figured they could not get their device 
or their activities onto the plane. They just simply attacked prior to 
getting on the plane and actually attacking prior to going through 
security--so it is in that spirit that we know that we must be right 
every single bit of the time. There is no margin for error, which is 
why this legislation is so well placed and so timely.
  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5056.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5056, 
the Airport Perimeter and Access Control Security Act of 2016, which 
amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to reform programs of the 
Transportation Security Administration, and streamline transportation 
security regulations.
  As a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the 
Former Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security, I 
believe that this bill is of the utmost importance in securing safe 
airports in our country.
  The objective of the bill is to establish a risk-based, intelligence-
driven model for the screening of employees at airports based on level 
of access and employment positions at domestic airports.
  The purpose of H.R. 5056 is to modernize and enhance airport 
perimeter and access control security by requiring updated risk 
assessments and the development of security strategies.
  An important part of keeping our airports safe from attacks is to 
make sure that the perimeters and the security check points are 
safeguarded and secure.
  TSA has kept American citizens safe by conducting incredibly thorough 
airport searches.
  The same detailed precautions need to be taken for people commuting 
around and near airport perimeters.
  This legislation seeks to bolster perimeter security and access 
controls at domestic airports by requiring the Transportation Security 
Administration to update relevant risk assessments and leveraging 
system-wide incident reporting to analyze trends contributing to the 
threat environment.
  This bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to 
develop and conduct an exercise related to the terrorist and foreign 
fighter threat in order to enhance domestic preparedness for and the 
collective response to terrorism, promote the dissemination of homeland 
security information, and test the U.S. security posture.
  H.R. 5056 would also test the security posture of the United States 
and the Secretary of Homeland Security through appropriate offices and 
components of the Department of Homeland Security.
  The Department of Homeland Security should immediately engage the 
local and state law enforcement agencies to ensure that city and state 
governments have the funds to increase the utilization of the local law 
enforcement to provide that added protection.
  Mr. Speaker, the state of access controls at domestic airports is in 
need of direct and thorough scrutiny in order to mitigate perimeter 
breaches and insider threats to aviation security.
  H.R. 5056 ensures that scrutiny will take place.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5056.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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