H. R. 1344 
One Hundred Thirteenth Congress 
of the 
United States of America 
AT THE FIRST SESSION 
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, 
the third day of January, two thousand and thirteen 
An Act 
To amend title 49, United States Code, to direct the Assistant Secretary of Homeland 
Security (Transportation Security Administration) to provide expedited air pas-
senger screening to severely injured or disabled members of the Armed Forces 
and severely injured or disabled veterans, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Helping Heroes Fly Act’’. 
SEC. 2. OPERATIONS CENTER PROGRAM FOR SEVERELY INJURED OR 
DISABLED 
MEMBERS 
OF 
THE 
ARMED 
FORCES 
AND 
SEVERELY INJURED OR DISABLED VETERANS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter I of chapter 449 of title 49, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘§ 44927. Expedited screening for severely injured or dis-
abled members of the Armed Forces and severely 
injured or disabled veterans 
‘‘(a) PASSENGER SCREENING.—The Assistant Secretary, in con-
sultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs, and organizations identified by the Secretaries of Defense 
and Veteran Affairs that advocate on behalf of severely injured 
or disabled members of the Armed Forces and severely injured 
or disabled veterans, shall develop and implement a process to 
support and facilitate the ease of travel and to the extent possible 
provide expedited passenger screening services for severely injured 
or disabled members of the Armed Forces and severely injured 
or disabled veterans through passenger screening. The process shall 
be designed to offer the individual private screening to the max-
imum extent practicable. 
‘‘(b) OPERATIONS CENTER.—As part of the process under sub-
section (a), the Assistant Secretary shall maintain an operations 
center to provide support and facilitate the movement of severely 
injured or disabled members of the Armed Forces and severely 
injured or disabled veterans through passenger screening prior 
to boarding a passenger aircraft operated by an air carrier or 
foreign air carrier in air transportation or intrastate air transpor-
tation. 
‘‘(c) PROTOCOLS.—The Assistant Secretary shall— 
‘‘(1) establish and publish protocols, in consultation with 
the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, 
and the organizations identified under subsection (a), under 
which a severely injured or disabled member of the Armed
H. R. 1344—2 
Forces or severely injured or disabled veteran, or the family 
member or other representative of such member or veteran, 
may contact the operations center maintained under subsection 
(b) and request the expedited passenger screening services 
described in subsection (a) for that member or veteran; and 
‘‘(2) upon receipt of a request under paragraph (1), require 
the operations center to notify the appropriate Federal Security 
Director of the request for expedited passenger screening serv-
ices, as described in subsection (a), for that member or veteran. 
‘‘(d) TRAINING.—The Assistant Secretary shall integrate 
training on the protocols established under subsection (c) into the 
training provided to all employees who will regularly provide the 
passenger screening services described in subsection (a). 
‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section shall 
affect the authority of the Assistant Secretary to require additional 
screening of a severely injured or disabled member of the Armed 
Forces, a severely injured or disabled veteran, or their accom-
panying family members or nonmedical attendants, if intelligence, 
law enforcement, or other information indicates that additional 
screening is necessary. 
‘‘(f) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this section, and annually thereafter, the Assistant Secretary 
shall submit to Congress a report on the implementation of this 
section. Each report shall include each of the following: 
‘‘(1) Information on the training provided under subsection 
(d). 
‘‘(2) Information on the consultations between the Assistant 
Secretary and the organizations identified under subsection 
(a). 
‘‘(3) The number of people who accessed the operations 
center during the period covered by the report. 
‘‘(4) Such other information as the Assistant Secretary 
determines is appropriate.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections at the begin-
ning of subchapter I of chapter 449 of title 49, United States
H. R. 1344—3 
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
44926 the following new item: 
‘‘44927. Expedited screening for severely injured or disabled members of the Armed 
Forces and severely injured or disabled veterans.’’. 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.