I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 559 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 15, 2009 

Ms. CLARKE (for herself, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. PERLMUTTER, 

and Mr. KING of New York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

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

6 Act of 2009’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF APPEAL AND REDRESS PROC2 ESS FOR INDIVIDUALS WRONGLY DELAYED 

3 OR PROHIBITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT, 

4 OR DENIED A RIGHT, BENEFIT, OR PRIVI5 LEGE. 

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

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

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

9 ‘‘SEC. 890A. APPEAL AND REDRESS PROCESS FOR PAS10 SENGERS WRONGLY DELAYED OR PROHIB11 ITED FROM BOARDING A FLIGHT, OR DENIED 

12 A RIGHT, BENEFIT, OR PRIVILEGE. 

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

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

15 shall establish a timely and fair process for individuals 

16 who believe they were delayed or prohibited from boarding 

17 a commercial aircraft or denied a right, benefit, or privi18 lege because they were wrongly identified as a threat when 

19 screened against any terrorist watchlist or database used 

20 by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) or 

21 any office or component of the Department. 

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

23 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es24 tablish in the Department an Office of Appeals and 

25 Redress to implement, coordinate, and execute the 

26 process established by the Secretary pursuant to 


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1 subsection (a). The Office shall include representa2 tives from the TSA and such other offices and com3 ponents of the Department as the Secretary deter4 mines appropriate. 

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

6 process established by the Secretary pursuant to 

7 subsection (a) shall include the establishment of a 

8 method by which the Office, under the direction of 

9 the Secretary, will maintain and appropriately dis10 seminate a comprehensive list, to be known as the 

11 ‘Comprehensive Cleared List’, of individuals who— 

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

13 any terrorist watchlist or database; 

14 ‘‘(B) completed an approved Department 

15 of Homeland Security appeal and redress re16 quest and provided such additional information 

17 as required by the Department to verify the in18 dividual’s identity; and 

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

20 identifiable information to be shared between 

21 multiple Departmental components for purposes 

22 of this section. 

23 ‘‘(3) USE OF COMPREHENSIVE CLEARED

24 LIST.— 

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


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1 ‘‘(i) except as provided in subpara2 graph (B), transmit to the TSA or any 

3 other appropriate office or component of 

4 the Department, other Federal, State, 

5 local, and tribal entities, and domestic air 

6 carriers and foreign air carriers that use 

7 any terrorist watchlist or database, the 

8 Comprehensive Cleared List and any other 

9 information the Secretary determines nec10 essary to resolve misidentifications and im11 prove the administration of the advanced 

12 passenger prescreening system and reduce 

13 the number of false positives; and 

14 ‘‘(ii) ensure that the Comprehensive 

15 Cleared List is taken into account by all 

16 appropriate offices or components of the 

17 Department when assessing the security 

18 risk of an individual. 

19 ‘‘(B) TERMINATION.— 

20 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The transmission 

21 of the Comprehensive Cleared List to do22 mestic air carriers and foreign air carriers 

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

24 terminate on the date on which the FedVerDate Nov 24 2008 22:51 Jan 20, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H559.IH H559

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1 eral Government assumes terrorist 

2 watchlist or database screening functions. 

3 ‘‘(ii) WRITTEN NOTIFICATION TO CON4 GRESS.—Not later than 15 days after the 

5 date on which the transmission of the 

6 Comprehensive Cleared List to the air car7 riers referred to in clause (i) of this sub8 paragraph terminates in accordance with 

9 such clause, the Secretary shall provide 

10 written notification to the Committee on 

11 Homeland Security of the House of Rep12 resentatives and the Committee on Com13 merce, Science, and Transportation and 

14 the Committee on Homeland Security and 

15 Governmental Affairs of the Senate of such 

16 termination. 

17 ‘‘(4) INTERGOVERNMENTAL EFFORTS.—The 

18 Secretary may— 

19 ‘‘(A) enter into memoranda of under20 standing with other Federal, State, local, and 

21 tribal agencies or entities, as necessary, to im22 prove the appeal and redress process and for 

23 other purposes such as to verify an individual’s 

24 identity and personally identifiable information; 

25 and 


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

2 and tribal agencies or entities that use any ter3 rorist watchlist or database to ensure, to the 

4 greatest extent practicable, that the Com5 prehensive Cleared List is considered when as6 sessing the security risk of an individual. 

7 ‘‘(5) HANDLING OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE

8 INFORMATION.—The Secretary, in conjunction with 

9 the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department, shall— 

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

11 Department handling personally identifiable in12 formation of individuals (in this paragraph re13 ferred to as ‘PII’) complete mandatory privacy 

14 and security training prior to being authorized 

15 to handle PII; 

16 ‘‘(B) ensure that the information main17 tained under this subsection is secured by 

18 encryption, including one-way hashing, data 

19 anonymization techniques, or such other equiva20 lent technical security protections as the Sec21 retary determines necessary; 

22 ‘‘(C) limit the information collected from 

23 misidentified passengers or other individuals to 

24 the minimum amount necessary to resolve an 

25 appeal and redress request; 


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1 ‘‘(D) ensure that the information main2 tained under this subsection is shared or trans3 ferred via an encrypted data network that has 

4 been audited to ensure that the anti-hacking 

5 and other security related software functions 

6 perform properly and are updated as necessary; 

7 ‘‘(E) ensure that any employee of the De8 partment receiving the information maintained 

9 under this subsection handles such information 

10 in accordance with section 552a of title 5, 

11 United States Code, the Federal Information 

12 Security Management Act of 2002 (Public Law 

13 107–296), and other applicable laws; 

14 ‘‘(F) only retain the information main15 tained under this subsection for as long as 

16 needed to assist the individual traveler in the 

17 appeal and redress process; 

18 ‘‘(G) engage in cooperative agreements 

19 with appropriate Federal agencies and entities, 

20 on a reimbursable basis, to ensure that legal 

21 name changes are properly reflected in any ter22 rorist watchlist or database and the Com23 prehensive Cleared List to improve the appeal 

24 and redress process and to ensure the most ac25 curate lists of identifications possible (except 


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1 that section 552a of title 5, United States 

2 Code, shall not prohibit the sharing of legal 

3 name changes among Federal agencies and en4 tities for the purposes of this section); and 

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

6 assessment of the appeal and redress process 

7 established under this section and transmit the 

8 assessment to the Committee on Homeland Se9 curity of the House of Representatives, and the 

10 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans11 portation and the Committee on Homeland Se12 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 

13 ‘‘(6) INITIATION OF APPEAL AND REDRESS

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

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

16 Office shall provide written information to air 

17 carrier passengers to begin the appeal and re18 dress process established pursuant to subsection 

19 (a); and 

20 ‘‘(B) the Department has a significant 

21 presence, provide the written information re22 ferred to in subparagraph (A) and ensure a 

23 TSA supervisor who is trained in such appeal 

24 and redress process is available to provide supVerDate Nov 24 2008 22:51 Jan 20, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H559.IH H559

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1 port to air carrier passengers in need of guid2 ance concerning such process. 

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

4 240 days after the date of the enactment of this sec5 tion, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on 

6 Homeland Security of the House of Representatives 

7 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

8 Transportation and the Committee on Homeland Se9 curity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a re10 port on the status of information sharing among 

11 users at the Department of any terrorist watchlist or 

12 database. The report shall include the following in13 formation: 

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

15 status of the implementation of this section to 

16 share the Comprehensive Cleared List with 

17 other Department offices and components and 

18 other Federal, State, local, and tribal authori19 ties that utilize any terrorist watchlist or data20 base. 

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

22 such other Department offices and components 

23 are taking into account the Comprehensive 

24 Cleared List. 


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

2 who have sought and successfully obtained re3 dress through the Office of Appeals and Re4 dress. 

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

6 who have sought and were denied redress 

7 through the Office of Appeals and Redress. 

8 ‘‘(E) An assessment of what impact infor9 mation sharing of the Comprehensive Cleared 

10 List has had on misidentifications of individuals 

11 who have successfully obtained redress through 

12 the Office of Appeals and Redress. 

13 ‘‘(F) An updated privacy impact assess14 ment. 

15 ‘‘(c) TERRORIST WATCHLIST OR DATABASE DE16 FINED.—In this section, the term ‘terrorist watchlist or 

17 database’ means any terrorist watchlist or database used 

18 by the Transportation Security Administration or any of19 fice or component of the Department of Homeland Secu20 rity or specified in Homeland Security Presidential Direc21 tive–6, in effect as of the date of the enactment of this 

22 section.’’. 

23 (b) INCORPORATION OF SECURE FLIGHT.—Section 

24 44903(j)(2) of title 49, United States Code, is amended— 

25 (1) in subparagraph (C)(iii)— 


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1 (A) by redesignating subclauses (II) 

2 through (VII) as subclauses (III) through 

3 (VIII), respectively; and 

4 (B) by inserting after subclause (I) the fol5 lowing new subclause: 

6 ‘‘(II) ensure, not later than 30 

7 days after the date of the enactment 

8 of the FAST Redress Act of 2009, 

9 that the procedure established under 

10 subclause (I) is incorporated into the 

11 appeals and redress process estab12 lished under section 890A of the 

13 Homeland Security Act of 2002;’’; 

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

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

16 with the appeals and redress process established 

17 under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 

18 2002’’; and 

19 (3) in subparagraph (G)— 

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

21 following new sentence: ‘‘The Assistant Sec22 retary shall incorporate the process established 

23 pursuant to this clause into the appeals and re24 dress process established under section 890A of 

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


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

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

4 and maintained pursuant to this clause into the 

5 Comprehensive Cleared List established and 

6 maintained under such section 890A.’’. 

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

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

9 the item relating to such section in the analysis for chap10 ter 449 of title 49). 

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

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

13 amended by adding after the item relating to section 890 

14 the following new item: 

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

privilege.’’. 

Æ 


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