II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3379 

To amend the Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act of 

2004 to establish a national criminal history background check system 

and criminal history review program for private security officers. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 14, 2021 

Mr. TOOMEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act of 2004 to establish a national criminal history background check system and criminal history review program for private security officers. 

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 ‘‘Private Security Offi5 cer Screening Improvement Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 3379 IS

1 (1) There are approximately 1,000,000 private 

2 security officers in the United States, both contract 

3 and proprietary. Private security officers are consid4 ered persons of trust by the public. They are en5 trusted to safeguard and protect people and prop6 erty, including nuclear power plants, schools, hos7 pitals, banks, places of worship, living communities, 

8 shopping malls, and entertainment venues. 

9 (2) The Next Generation Identification system 

10 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (referred to 

11 in this section as the ‘‘FBI’’) maintains fingerprints 

12 and criminal history records on more than 

13 79,000,000 individuals. FBI criminal history back14 ground checks on private security officers have un15 covered serious criminal convictions that did not 

16 show up in State and commercial criminal history 

17 background checks. Accordingly, it is clearly in the 

18 public interest for private security officers and appli19 cants to be subject to FBI criminal history back20 ground checks. 

21 (3) Congress has worked with the States to 

22 make FBI criminal history background checks avail23 able to employers of private security officers through 

24 the Private Security Officer Employment Authoriza25 tion Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 41106) (referred to in 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 3379 IS

1 this section as the ‘‘PSOEAA’’) and statutes enacted 

2 by dozens of States in compliance with Public Law 

3 92–544. The PSOEAA authorized employers of pri4 vate security officers to request FBI criminal history 

5 background checks on their officers and applicants 

6 through a State agency. However, since the enact7 ment of the PSOEAA in 2004, not all States have 

8 made FBI criminal history background checks avail9 able to employers of private security officers. As a 

10 result, there are many private security officers and 

11 applicants for which employers are unable to obtain 

12 FBI criminal history background checks as author13 ized by the PSOEAA. 

14 SEC. 3. NATIONAL CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND 

15 CHECK AND CRIMINAL HISTORY REVIEW 

16 PROGRAM. 

17 The Private Security Officer Employment Authoriza18 tion Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 41106) is amended— 

19 (1) in subsection (c)— 

20 (A) in paragraph (2)(B), by inserting ‘‘or 

21 a designated entity’’ after ‘‘a State identifica22 tion bureau’’; 

23 (B) by redesignating paragraph (5) as 

24 paragraph (7); 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 3379 IS

1 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and 

2 (4) as paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; 

3 (D) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 

4 following: 

5 ‘‘(3) DESIGNATED ENTITY.—The term ‘des6 ignated entity’ means an entity designated by the 

7 Attorney General, which may not be a Federal agen8 cy, to receive and process requests under subsection 

9 (d).’’; and 

10 (E) by inserting after paragraph (5), as so 

11 redesignated, the following: 

12 ‘‘(6) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means a State, 

13 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of 

14 Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, 

15 Guam, and the Trust Territories of the Pacific.’’; 

16 and 

17 (2) in subsection (d)— 

18 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

19 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

20 ‘‘the State identification bureau of a par21 ticipating State’’ and inserting ‘‘a State 

22 identification bureau or a designated enti23 ty’’; 

24 (ii) in subparagraph (B)(i), by strik25 ing ‘‘to the State identification bureau of 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
5 

•S 3379 IS

1 the participating State the’’ and inserting 

2 ‘‘a’’; 

3 (iii) in subparagraph (C)— 

4 (I) in the heading— 

5 (aa) by striking ‘‘THE

6 STATE’’ and inserting ‘‘A STATE’’; 

7 and 

8 (bb) by inserting ‘‘OR DES9 IGNATED ENTITY’’ after ‘‘BU10 REAU’’; 

11 (II) in the matter preceding 

12 clause (i), by striking ‘‘the State iden13 tification bureau of a participating 

14 State’’ and inserting ‘‘a State identi15 fication bureau or a designated enti16 ty’’; and 

17 (III) in clause (ii), by inserting 

18 ‘‘or designated entity’’ after ‘‘State 

19 identification bureau’’; 

20 (iv) in subparagraph (D)— 

21 (I) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘the 

22 State identification bureau’’ and in23 serting ‘‘a State identification bureau 

24 or a designated entity’’; and 

25 (II) in clause (ii)— 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
6 

•S 3379 IS

1 (aa) in subclause (I), in the 

2 matter preceding item (aa)— 

3 (AA) by striking ‘‘a 

4 participating’’ and inserting 

5 ‘‘employment in a’’; and 

6 (BB) by inserting 

7 ‘‘identification bureau or a 

8 designated entity’’ after ‘‘the 

9 State’’; and 

10 (bb) in subclause (II)— 

11 (AA) by striking ‘‘a 

12 participating’’ and inserting 

13 ‘‘employment in a’’; and 

14 (BB) by inserting 

15 ‘‘identification bureau or a 

16 designated entity’’ after ‘‘the 

17 State’’; and 

18 (v) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(F) STATE CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECK.— 

20 A designated entity may, upon request from an 

21 authorized employer, complete a check of a 

22 State criminal history database. 

23 ‘‘(G) DESIGNATED ENTITIES.—The Attor24 ney General shall designate, and enter into an 

25 agreement with, one or more entities to receive 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
7 

•S 3379 IS

1 and process requests under this subsection.’’; 

2 and 

3 (B) in paragraph (4), by adding at the end 

4 the following: 

5 ‘‘(D) FEDERAL PROGRAM COSTS.— 

6 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a 

7 criminal history record information search 

8 submitted through a designated entity in 

9 accordance with this subsection, the fees 

10 collected by the designated entity shall be 

11 set at a level that will ensure the recovery 

12 of the full costs of providing all such serv13 ices. 

14 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—The designated 

15 entity shall remit the appropriate portion 

16 of the fees collected under clause (i) to the 

17 Attorney General, which amount is in ac18 cordance with the amount published in the 

19 Federal Register to be collected for the 

20 provision of a criminal history background 

21 check by the Federal Bureau of Investiga22 tion.’’. 

23 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS. 

24 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

25 of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue such regulaVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:41 Dec 16, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3379.IS S3379

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
8 

•S 3379 IS

1 tions as may be necessary to carry out the amendments 

2 made by this Act. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS