I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 4488 
To enhance the security operations of the Transportation Security Administra-
tion and stability of the transportation security workforce by applying 
the personnel system of Title 5 of the U.S. Code to employees of 
the Transportation Security Administration who provide screening of 
all passengers and property, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 8, 2016 
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi (for himself and Mrs. LOWEY) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Re-
form, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To enhance the security operations of the Transportation 
Security Administration and stability of the transpor-
tation security workforce by applying the personnel sys-
tem of Title 5 of the U.S. Code to employees of the 
Transportation Security Administration who provide 
screening of all passengers and property, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rights for Transpor-
tation Security Officers Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists, 
who underwent airport security screening prior to 
boarding domestic flights, were able to commandeer 
four airplanes and use those airplanes to perpetrate 
the most deadly terrorist attack ever to be executed 
on United States soil. 
(2) In the aftermath of those attacks, Congress 
passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act 
(ATSA), enacted by President George W. Bush on 
November 19, 2001 (Public Law 107–71), to en-
hance the level of security screening throughout our 
aviation system and transfer responsibility for such 
screening from the private sector to a new Federal 
agency, the Transportation Security Administration 
(TSA). 
(3) By establishing TSA, Congress and the 
American public recognized that the highest level of 
screener performance was directly linked to employ-
ment and training standards, pay and benefits, and 
the creation of an experienced, committed screening 
workforce. 
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(4) The Aviation and Transportation Security 
Act included a statutory footnote allowing the TSA 
Administrator to ‘‘employ, appoint, discipline, termi-
nate, and fix the compensation’’, including the 
‘‘terms, and conditions of employment of Federal 
Service for such a number of individuals as the 
Under Secretary determines to be necessary to carry 
out the screening functions of the Under Secretary 
under section 44901 of title 49, United States 
Code’’. 
(5) TSA has interpreted the ATSA footnote as 
applying to the majority of the Transportation Secu-
rity Officer workforce performing screening func-
tions, while all other Transportation Security Ad-
ministration employees, including managers, are 
subject to title 5, United States Code, as incor-
porated in title 49 of such Code. 
(6) In November 2006, the International Labor 
Organization ruled that the Bush Administration 
violated international labor law when it prohibited 
Transportation Security Officers from engaging in 
collective bargaining. 
(7) After the Federal Labor Relations Board 
approved a petition for the election of an exclusive 
representative, on February 4, 2011, then-TSA Ad-
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ministrator John Pistole issued a binding determina-
tion stating in part ‘‘it is critical that every TSA 
employee feels that he or she has a voice and feels 
safe raising issues and concerns of all kinds. This is 
important not just for morale; engagement of every 
employee is critically important for security’’. 
(8) The February 4, 2011, determination was 
superseded by a second Determination issued on De-
cember 29, 2014, changing the previous guideline 
for collective bargaining and resulting in limitations 
in the subjects that can be bargained, issues in dis-
pute that may be raised to an independent, third- 
party neutral decisionmaker (such as an arbitrator 
or the Merit Systems Protection Board), and bar-
riers to union representation of the Transportation 
Security Officer workforce. 
(9) Both the 2011 and 2014 determinations 
cited TSA’s authority under section 44935 note of 
title 59, United States Code, to create a personnel 
system that denies the Transportation Security Offi-
cer workforce the same title 5 rights as other Fed-
eral workers, including the right to appeal adverse 
personnel decisions to the Merit Systems Protection 
Board, fair pay under the General Services wage 
system, 2011, fair pay and raises under the General 
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