II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1367 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to direct the Assistant Secretary 

of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) to provide expedited air passenger screening to severely injured or disabled 

members of the Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 25, 2013 

Mr. PRYOR (for himself and Ms. AYOTTE) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

A BILL 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to direct the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) to provide expedited air passenger 

screening to severely injured or disabled members of 

the Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Helping Heroes Fly 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. OPERATIONS CENTER PROGRAM FOR SEVERELY IN2 JURED OR DISABLED MEMBERS OF THE 

3 ARMED FORCES AND SEVERELY INJURED OR 

4 DISABLED VETERANS. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 449 of 

6 title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 

7 end the following new section: 

8 ‘‘§ 44927. Expedited screening for severely injured or 

9 disabled members of the Armed Forces 

10 and severely injured or disabled veterans 

11 ‘‘(a) PASSENGER SCREENING.—The Assistant Sec12 retary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Ad13 ministration), in consultation with the Secretary of De14 fense, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and organizations 

15 that advocate on behalf of members of the Armed Forces 

16 and veterans, including organizations that advocate on be17 half of severely injured or disabled members of the Armed 

18 Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans, shall de19 velop and implement a process to facilitate the ease of 

20 travel and to the extent possible provide expedited pas21 senger screening services for severely injured or disabled 

22 members of the Armed Forces, severely injured or disabled 

23 veterans, and their accompanying family members or non24 medical attendants. Such process shall be designed to pro25 tect the privacy of the individual being screened to the 

26 maximum extent practicable. 


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1 ‘‘(b) OPERATIONS CENTER.—As part of the process 

2 required under subsection (a), the Assistant Secretary 

3 shall maintain an operations center to provide support and 

4 facilitate the movement of severely injured or disabled 

5 members of the Armed Forces and severely injured or dis6 abled veterans through screening prior to boarding a pas7 senger aircraft operated by an air carrier or foreign air 

8 carrier in air transportation or intrastate air transpor9 tation. Such operations center shall be operational at all 

10 times. 

11 ‘‘(c) PROTOCOLS.—The Assistant Secretary shall— 

12 ‘‘(1) establish and publish protocols, in con13 sultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Sec14 retary of Veterans Affairs, and organizations that 

15 advocate on behalf of members of the Armed Forces 

16 and veterans, including organizations that advocate 

17 on behalf of severely injured or disabled members of 

18 the Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled 

19 veterans, under which a severely injured or disabled 

20 member of the Armed Forces or severely injured or 

21 disabled veteran, or the family member or other rep22 resentative of such a member or veteran, may con23 tact the operations center maintained under sub24 section (b) and request expedited screening services 


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1 described in subsection (a) for the member or vet2 eran; and 

3 ‘‘(2) upon receipt of such a request, require 

4 such operations center to notify the appropriate 

5 Federal security director of the request to facilitate 

6 the expedited passenger screening services described 

7 in subsection (a) for the member or veteran. 

8 ‘‘(d) TRAINING.—The Assistant Secretary shall inte9 grate training on the protocols established under sub10 section (c) into the training provided to all employees who 

11 will provide the screening services described in subsection 

12 (a). 

13 ‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec14 tion affects the authority of the Assistant Secretary to re15 quire additional screening of a severely injured or disabled 

16 member of the Armed Forces, a severely injured or dis17 abled veteran, or their accompanying family members or 

18 nonmedical attendants, if intelligence, law enforcement, or 

19 other information indicates that additional screening is 

20 necessary. 

21 ‘‘(f) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 

22 of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, 

23 the Assistant Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 

24 on the implementation of this section. Each such report 

25 shall include each of the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) Information on the training provided 

2 under subsection (d). 

3 ‘‘(2) Information on the consultations between 

4 the Assistant Secretary and organizations that advo5 cate on behalf of members of the Armed Forces and 

6 veterans as described in subsection (a). 

7 ‘‘(3) The number of people who accessed the 

8 operations center during the period covered by the 

9 report. 

10 ‘‘(4) Such other information as the Assistant 

11 Secretary determines is appropriate.’’. 

12 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

13 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 

14 after the item relating to section 44926 the following new 

15 item: 

‘‘44927. Expedited screening for severely injured or disabled members of the 

Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans.’’. 

Æ 


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