I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2309 
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 pas-
sengers and property, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 3, 2017 
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 2017’’. 
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 ATSA included a statutory footnote al-
lowing the TSA Administrator to ‘‘employ, appoint, 
discipline, terminate, and fix the compensation’’, in-
cluding 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 Sec-
retary under section 44901 of title 49, United States 
Code’’. 
(5) TSA has interpreted the ATSA footnote as 
applying to the Transportation Security Officer 
workforce performing screening functions, while all 
other Transportation Security Administration em-
ployees, including managers, are subject to title 5, 
United States Code, as incorporated in title 49 of 
such Code. 
(6) In November 2006, the International Labor 
Organization ruled that the Bush administration vio-
lated 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-
ministrator John Pistole issued a binding determina-
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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) Subsequently, in 2014, then-Administrator 
Pistole issued a second determination, which was su-
perseded by a 2016 determination, which changed 
the previous guidelines for collective bargaining and 
limited the subjects that can be bargained as well as 
issues in dispute that may be raised to an inde-
pendent, third-party neutral decisionmaker. 
(9) The 2011, 2014, and 2016 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 present griev-
ances to a neutral third party, fair pay under the 
General Services wage system, including access to 
overtime pay and earned leave, application of the 
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, fair performance 
appraisals under chapter 73 of title 5, United States 
Code, and direct protections against employment dis-
crimination found in title 7, United States Code. 
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(10) The Transportation Security Officer work-
force is an integral component of the security frame-
work in place since the terrorist attacks on Sep-
tember 11, 2001, and responsible for screening more 
than 738 million passengers annually. In the course 
of their work, Transportation Security Officers not 
only identify aviation security threats but also iden-
tify kidnapping and trafficking victims and prevent 
firearms from being brought on planes in carry-on 
bags. In 2016 alone, 3,391 firearms were discovered 
by Transportation Security Officers at aviation secu-
rity checkpoints. 
(11) Every day, Transportation Security Offi-
cers put their safety on the line to protect the flying 
public and on November 1, 2013, a Transportation 
Security Officer, Gerardo Hernandez, gave his life to 
protect the flying public when he was killed by a 
gunman who attacked the Los Angeles International 
Airport. 
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that the personnel system utilized by the Transpor-
tation Security Administration pursuant to the authority 
of section 44935 note of title 49, United States Code, pro-
vides insufficient workplace protections for the Transpor-
tation Security Officer workforce, the frontline personnel 
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