IIB 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 559 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 4, 2009 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish 

an appeal and redress process for individuals wrongly 

delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight, or denied 

a right, benefit, or privilege, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair, Accurate, Secure, 

3 and Timely Redress Act of 2009’’ or the ‘‘FAST Redress 

4 Act of 2009’’. 

5 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF APPEAL AND REDRESS PROC6 ESS FOR INDIVIDUALS WRONGLY DELAYED 

7 OR PROHIBITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT, 

8 OR DENIED A RIGHT, BENEFIT, OR PRIVI9 LEGE. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle H of title VIII of the 

11 Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) 

12 is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 

13 ‘‘SEC. 890A. APPEAL AND REDRESS PROCESS FOR PAS14 SENGERS WRONGLY DELAYED OR PROHIB15 ITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT, OR DENIED 

16 A RIGHT, BENEFIT, OR PRIVILEGE. 

17 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 30 days after 

18 the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary 

19 shall establish a timely and fair process for individuals 

20 who believe they were delayed or prohibited from boarding 

21 a commercial aircraft or denied a right, benefit, or privi22 lege because they were wrongly identified as a threat when 

23 screened against any terrorist watchlist or database used 

24 by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) or 

25 any office or component of the Department. 

26 ‘‘(b) OFFICE OF APPEALS AND REDRESS.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es2 tablish in the Department an Office of Appeals and 

3 Redress to implement, coordinate, and execute the 

4 process established by the Secretary pursuant to 

5 subsection (a). The Office shall include representa6 tives from the TSA and such other offices and com7 ponents of the Department as the Secretary deter8 mines appropriate. 

9 ‘‘(2) COMPREHENSIVE CLEARED LIST.—The 

10 process established by the Secretary pursuant to 

11 subsection (a) shall include the establishment of a 

12 method by which the Office, under the direction of 

13 the Secretary, will maintain and appropriately dis14 seminate a comprehensive list, to be known as the 

15 ‘Comprehensive Cleared List’, of individuals who— 

16 ‘‘(A) were misidentified as an individual on 

17 any terrorist watchlist or database; 

18 ‘‘(B) completed an approved Department 

19 of Homeland Security appeal and redress re20 quest and provided such additional information 

21 as required by the Department to verify the in22 dividual’s identity; and 

23 ‘‘(C) permit the use of their personally 

24 identifiable information to be shared between 


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1 multiple Departmental components for purposes 

2 of this section. 

3 ‘‘(3) USE OF COMPREHENSIVE CLEARED

4 LIST.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall— 

6 ‘‘(i) except as provided in subpara7 graph (B), transmit to the TSA or any 

8 other appropriate office or component of 

9 the Department, other Federal, State, 

10 local, and tribal entities, and domestic air 

11 carriers and foreign air carriers that use 

12 any terrorist watchlist or database, the 

13 Comprehensive Cleared List and any other 

14 information the Secretary determines nec15 essary to resolve misidentifications and im16 prove the administration of the advanced 

17 passenger prescreening system and reduce 

18 the number of false positives; and 

19 ‘‘(ii) ensure that the Comprehensive 

20 Cleared List is taken into account by all 

21 appropriate offices or components of the 

22 Department when assessing the security 

23 risk of an individual. 

24 ‘‘(B) TERMINATION.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The transmission 

2 of the Comprehensive Cleared List to do3 mestic air carriers and foreign air carriers 

4 under clause (i) of subparagraph (A) shall 

5 terminate on the date on which the Fed6 eral Government assumes terrorist 

7 watchlist or database screening functions. 

8 ‘‘(ii) WRITTEN NOTIFICATION TO CON9 GRESS.—Not later than 15 days after the 

10 date on which the transmission of the 

11 Comprehensive Cleared List to the air car12 riers referred to in clause (i) of this sub13 paragraph terminates in accordance with 

14 such clause, the Secretary shall provide 

15 written notification to the Committee on 

16 Homeland Security of the House of Rep17 resentatives and the Committee on Com18 merce, Science, and Transportation and 

19 the Committee on Homeland Security and 

20 Governmental Affairs of the Senate of such 

21 termination. 

22 ‘‘(4) INTERGOVERNMENTAL EFFORTS.—The 

23 Secretary may— 

24 ‘‘(A) enter into memoranda of under25 standing with other Federal, State, local, and 


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1 tribal agencies or entities, as necessary, to im2 prove the appeal and redress process and for 

3 other purposes such as to verify an individual’s 

4 identity and personally identifiable information; 

5 and 

6 ‘‘(B) work with other Federal, State, local, 

7 and tribal agencies or entities that use any ter8 rorist watchlist or database to ensure, to the 

9 greatest extent practicable, that the Com10 prehensive Cleared List is considered when as11 sessing the security risk of an individual. 

12 ‘‘(5) HANDLING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE

13 INFORMATION.—The Secretary, in conjunction with 

14 the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department, shall— 

15 ‘‘(A) require that Federal employees of the 

16 Department handling personally identifiable in17 formation of individuals (in this paragraph re18 ferred to as ‘PII’) complete mandatory privacy 

19 and security training prior to being authorized 

20 to handle PII; 

21 ‘‘(B) ensure that the information main22 tained under this subsection is secured by 

23 encryption, including one-way hashing, data 

24 anonymization techniques, or such other equivaVerDate Nov 24 2008 02:32 Feb 05, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H559.RFS H559

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1 lent technical security protections as the Sec2 retary determines necessary; 

3 ‘‘(C) limit the information collected from 

4 misidentified passengers or other individuals to 

5 the minimum amount necessary to resolve an 

6 appeal and redress request; 

7 ‘‘(D) ensure that the information main8 tained under this subsection is shared or trans9 ferred via an encrypted data network that has 

10 been audited to ensure that the anti-hacking 

11 and other security related software functions 

12 perform properly and are updated as necessary; 

13 ‘‘(E) ensure that any employee of the De14 partment receiving the information maintained 

15 under this subsection handles such information 

16 in accordance with section 552a of title 5, 

17 United States Code, the Federal Information 

18 Security Management Act of 2002 (Public Law 

19 107–296), and other applicable laws; 

20 ‘‘(F) only retain the information main21 tained under this subsection for as long as 

22 needed to assist the individual traveler in the 

23 appeal and redress process; 

24 ‘‘(G) engage in cooperative agreements 

25 with appropriate Federal agencies and entities, 


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1 on a reimbursable basis, to ensure that legal 

2 name changes are properly reflected in any ter3 rorist watchlist or database and the Com4 prehensive Cleared List to improve the appeal 

5 and redress process and to ensure the most ac6 curate lists of identifications possible (except 

7 that section 552a of title 5, United States 

8 Code, shall not prohibit the sharing of legal 

9 name changes among Federal agencies and en10 tities for the purposes of this section); and 

11 ‘‘(H) conduct and publish a privacy impact 

12 assessment of the appeal and redress process 

13 established under this section and transmit the 

14 assessment to the Committee on Homeland Se15 curity of the House of Representatives, and the 

16 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans17 portation and the Committee on Homeland Se18 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 

19 ‘‘(6) INITIATION OF APPEAL AND REDRESS

20 PROCESS AT AIRPORTS.—At each airport at which— 

21 ‘‘(A) the Department has a presence, the 

22 Office shall provide written information to air 

23 carrier passengers to begin the appeal and re24 dress process established pursuant to subsection 

25 (a); and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the Department has a significant 

2 presence, provide the written information re3 ferred to in subparagraph (A) and ensure a 

4 TSA supervisor who is trained in such appeal 

5 and redress process is available to provide sup6 port to air carrier passengers in need of guid7 ance concerning such process. 

8 ‘‘(7) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 

9 240 days after the date of the enactment of this sec10 tion, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on 

11 Homeland Security of the House of Representatives 

12 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

13 Transportation and the Committee on Homeland Se14 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a re15 port on the status of information sharing among 

16 users at the Department of any terrorist watchlist or 

17 database. The report shall include the following in18 formation: 

19 ‘‘(A) A description of the processes and the 

20 status of the implementation of this section to 

21 share the Comprehensive Cleared List with 

22 other Department offices and components and 

23 other Federal, State, local, and tribal authori24 ties that utilize any terrorist watchlist or data25 base. 


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1 ‘‘(B) A description of the extent to which 

2 such other Department offices and components 

3 are taking into account the Comprehensive 

4 Cleared List. 

5 ‘‘(C) Data on the number of individuals 

6 who have sought and successfully obtained re7 dress through the Office of Appeals and Re8 dress. 

9 ‘‘(D) Data on the number of individuals 

10 who have sought and were denied redress 

11 through the Office of Appeals and Redress. 

12 ‘‘(E) An assessment of what impact infor13 mation sharing of the Comprehensive Cleared 

14 List has had on misidentifications of individuals 

15 who have successfully obtained redress through 

16 the Office of Appeals and Redress. 

17 ‘‘(F) An updated privacy impact assess18 ment. 

19 ‘‘(c) TERRORIST WATCHLIST OR DATABASE DE20 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘terrorist watchlist or 

21 database’ means any terrorist watchlist or database used 

22 by the Transportation Security Administration or any of23 fice or component of the Department of Homeland Secu24 rity or specified in Homeland Security Presidential DirecVerDate Nov 24 2008 02:32 Feb 05, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H559.RFS H559

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1 tive–6, in effect as of the date of the enactment of this 

2 section.’’. 

3 (b) INCORPORATION OF SECURE FLIGHT.—Section 

4 44903(j)(2) of title 49, United States Code, is amended— 

5 (1) in subparagraph (C)(iii)— 

6 (A) by redesignating subclauses (II) 

7 through (VII) as subclauses (III) through 

8 (VIII), respectively; and 

9 (B) by inserting after subclause (I) the fol10 lowing new subclause: 

11 ‘‘(II) ensure, not later than 30 

12 days after the date of the enactment 

13 of the FAST Redress Act of 2009, 

14 that the procedure established under 

15 subclause (I) is incorporated into the 

16 appeals and redress process estab17 lished under section 890A of the 

18 Homeland Security Act of 2002;’’; 

19 (2) in subparagraph (E)(iii), by inserting before 

20 the period at the end the following: ‘‘, in accordance 

21 with the appeals and redress process established 

22 under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 

23 2002’’; and 

24 (3) in subparagraph (G)— 


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1 (A) in clause (i), by adding at the end the 

2 following new sentence: ‘‘The Assistant Sec3 retary shall incorporate the process established 

4 pursuant to this clause into the appeals and re5 dress process established under section 890A of 

6 the Homeland Security Act of 2002.’’; and 

7 (B) in clause (ii), by adding at the end the 

8 following new sentence: ‘‘The Assistant Sec9 retary shall incorporate the record established 

10 and maintained pursuant to this clause into the 

11 Comprehensive Cleared List established and 

12 maintained under such section 890A.’’. 

13 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Title 49, United 

14 States Code, is amended by striking section 44926 (and 

15 the item relating to such section in the analysis for chap16 ter 449 of title 49). 

17 (d) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—Section 1(b) of the 

18 Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101(b)) is 

19 amended by adding after the item relating to section 890 

20 the following new item: 


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‘‘Sec. 890A. Appeal and redress process for passengers wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight, or denied a right, benefit, or 

privilege.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives February 3, 

2009. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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