II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1403 

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

of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration) to facilitate the screening of severely injured or disabled members of the Armed 

Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans at airports, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 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 facilitate the screening of severely injured or disabled members of the Armed Forces 

and severely injured or disabled veterans at airports, 

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. FACILITATION OF PASSENGER SCREENING FOR SE2 VERELY INJURED OR DISABLED MEMBERS 

3 OF THE ARMED FORCES AND SEVERELY IN4 JURED OR 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. Facilitation of passenger screening for se9 verely injured or disabled members of 

10 the Armed Forces and severely injured or 

11 disabled veterans 

12 ‘‘(a) PASSENGER SCREENING.—The Assistant Sec13 retary of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Ad14 ministration), in consultation with the Secretary of De15 fense, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and organizations 

16 described in subsection (b), shall develop and implement 

17 a process to support severely injured or disabled members 

18 of the Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled vet19 erans during, and to facilitate the movement of such mem20 bers and veterans through, the screening of passengers be21 fore boarding passenger aircraft required by section 

22 44901(a) (in this section referred to as ‘passenger screen23 ing’). The process required under this subsection shall in24 clude offering private screening for such members and vet25 erans to the maximum extent practicable. 


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1 ‘‘(b) ORGANIZATIONS DESCRIBED.—Organizations 

2 described in this subsection are organizations identified by 

3 the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans 

4 Affairs that advocate on behalf of severely injured or dis5 abled members of the Armed Forces and severely injured 

6 or disabled veterans. 

7 ‘‘(c) OPERATIONS CENTER.—As part of the process 

8 required under subsection (a), the Assistant Secretary 

9 shall maintain an operations center to provide support for 

10 severely injured or disabled members of the Armed Forces 

11 and severely injured or disabled veterans during, and to 

12 facilitate the movement of such members and veterans 

13 through, passenger screening. 

14 ‘‘(d) PROTOCOLS.—The Assistant Secretary shall— 

15 ‘‘(1) establish and publish protocols, in con16 sultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Sec17 retary of Veterans Affairs, and organizations de18 scribed in subsection (b), under which a severely in19 jured or disabled member of the Armed Forces or 

20 severely injured or disabled veteran, or the family 

21 member or other representative of such a member or 

22 veteran, may contact the operations center main23 tained under subsection (c) and request support dur24 ing and facilitation of passenger screening for the 

25 member or veteran; and 


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

2 operations center to notify the appropriate Federal 

3 Security Director of the request. 

4 ‘‘(e) TRAINING.—The Assistant Secretary shall inte5 grate training on the protocols established under sub6 section (c) into the training provided to all employees who 

7 will regularly conduct passenger screening. 

8 ‘‘(f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec9 tion affects the authority of the Assistant Secretary to re10 quire additional screening of a severely injured or disabled 

11 member of the Armed Forces or a severely injured or dis12 abled veteran if intelligence, law enforcement, or other in13 formation indicates that additional screening is necessary. 

14 ‘‘(g) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the 

15 date of the enactment of this section, and annually there16 after, the Assistant Secretary shall submit to Congress a 

17 report on the implementation of this section. Each such 

18 report shall include each of the following: 

19 ‘‘(1) Information on the training provided 

20 under subsection (d). 

21 ‘‘(2) Information on the consultations between 

22 the Assistant Secretary and organizations described 

23 in subsection (b). 


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

2 operations center during the period covered by the 

3 report. 

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

5 Secretary determines is appropriate.’’. 

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

7 at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 

8 after the item relating to section 44926 the following new 

9 item: 

‘‘44927. Facilitation of passenger screening for severely injured or disabled 

members of the Armed Forces and severely injured or disabled 

veterans.’’. 

Æ 


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