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(2) AVIATION STAKEHOLDERS.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall 
authorize an aviation stakeholder, under the 
oversight of and in coordination with the Federal 
Security Director at an applicable airport, to 
contract with, procure or purchase, and deploy 
one or more third party explosives detection ca-
nines certified under this section to augment 
public area security at that airport. 
(B) APPLICABLE LARGE HUB AIRPORTS.— 
(i) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided 
under subparagraph (ii), notwithstanding 
any law to the contrary, and subject to the 
other provisions of this paragraph, an ap-
plicable large hub airport may provide a 
certified canine described in subparagraph 
(A) on an in-kind basis to the TSA to be 
deployed as a passenger screening canine at 
that airport unless the applicable large hub 
airport consents to the use of that certified 
canine elsewhere. 
(ii) EXCEPTION.—The Administrator 
may, on a case-by-case basis, deploy a cer-
tified canine described in subparagraph (A) 
to a transportation facility other than the
979 
applicable large hub airport described in 
clause (i) for not more than 90 days per 
year if the Administrator— 
(I) determines that such deploy-
ment is necessary to meet operational 
or security needs; and 
(II) notifies the applicable large 
hub airport described in clause (i). 
(iii) NONDEPLOYABLE CANINES.—Any 
certified canine provided to the TSA under 
clause (i) that does not complete training 
for deployment under that clause shall be 
the responsibility of the large hub airport 
unless the TSA agrees to a different out-
come. 
(C) HANDLERS.—Not later than 30 days be-
fore a canine begins training to become a cer-
tified canine under subparagraph (B), the air-
port shall notify the TSA of such training and 
the Administrator shall assign a TSA canine 
handler to participate in the training with that 
canine, as appropriate. 
(D) LIMITATION.—The Administrator may 
not reduce the staffing allocation model for an 
applicable large hub airport based on that air-
980 
port’s provision of a certified canine under this 
paragraph. 
(j) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) APPLICABLE
LARGE
HUB
AIRPORT.—The 
term ‘‘applicable large hub airport’’ means a large 
hub airport (as defined in section 40102 of title 49, 
United States Code) that has less than 100 percent of 
the allocated passenger screening canine teams staffed 
by the TSA. 
(2) AVIATION STAKEHOLDER.—The term ‘‘avia-
tion stakeholder’’ includes an airport, airport oper-
ator, and air carrier. 
SEC. 1929. TRACKING AND MONITORING OF CANINE TRAIN-
ING AND TESTING. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Administrator shall use, to the extent prac-
ticable, a digital monitoring system for all training, testing, 
and validation or certification of public and private canine 
assets utilized or funded by the TSA to facilitate improved 
review, data analysis, and record keeping of canine testing 
performance and program administration. 
SEC. 1930. VIPR TEAM STATISTICS. 
(a) VIPR TEAM STATISTICS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 
the date of enactment of this Act, and annually there-
981 
after, the Administrator shall notify the appropriate 
committees of Congress of the number of VIPR teams 
available for deployment at transportation facilities, 
including— 
(A) the number of VIPR team operations 
that include explosive detection canine teams; 
and 
(B) the distribution of VIPR team oper-
ations deployed across different modes of trans-
portation. 
(2) ANNEX.—The notification under paragraph 
(1) may contain a classified annex. 
(3) DEFINITION OF VIPR TEAM.—In this sub-
section, the term ‘‘VIPR’’ means a Visible Intermodal 
Prevention and Response team authorized under sec-
tion 1303 of the National Transit Systems Security 
Act of 2007 (6 U.S.C. 1112). 
(b) AUTHORIZATION
OF
VIPR TEAMS.—Section 
1303(b) of the National Transit Systems Security Act of 
2007 (6 U.S.C. 1112(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘to the ex-
tent appropriated, including funds to develop not more than 
60 VIPR teams, for fiscal years 2016 through 2018’’ and 
inserting ‘‘such sums as necessary, including funds to de-
velop at least 30, but not more than 60, VIPR teams, for 
fiscal years 2019 through 2021’’.
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SEC. 1931. PUBLIC AREA SECURITY WORKING GROUP. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) PUBLIC AND PRIVATE STAKEHOLDERS.—The 
term ‘‘public and private stakeholders’’ has the mean-
ing given the term in section 114(t)(1)(C) of title 49, 
United States Code. 
(2) SURFACE
TRANSPORTATION
ASSET.—The 
term ‘‘surface transportation asset’’ includes— 
(A) facilities, equipment, or systems used to 
provide transportation services by— 
(i) a public transportation agency (as 
the term is defined in section 1402 of the 
Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 
Commission Act of 2007 (6 U.S.C. 1131)); 
(ii) a railroad carrier (as the term is 
defined in section 20102 of title 49, United 
States Code); 
(iii) an owner or operator of— 
(I) an entity offering scheduled, 
fixed-route transportation services by 
over-the road bus (as the term is de-
fined in section 1501 of the Imple-
menting Recommendations of the 9/11 
Commission Act of 2007 (6 U.S.C. 
1151)); or 
(II) a bus terminal; or
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(B) other transportation facilities, equip-
ment, or systems, as determined by the Sec-
retary. 
(b) PUBLIC AREA SECURITY WORKING GROUP.— 
(1) WORKING
GROUP.—The Administrator, in 
coordination with the National Protection and Pro-
grams Directorate, shall establish a working group to 
promote collaborative engagement between the TSA 
and public and private stakeholders to develop non- 
binding recommendations for enhancing security in 
public areas of transportation facilities (including fa-
cilities that are surface transportation assets), includ-
ing recommendations regarding the following: 
(A) Information sharing and interoperable 
communication capabilities among the TSA and 
public and private stakeholders with respect to 
terrorist or other threats. 
(B) Coordinated incident response proce-
dures. 
(C) The prevention of terrorist attacks and 
other incidents through strategic planning, secu-
rity training, exercises and drills, law enforce-
ment patrols, worker vetting, and suspicious ac-
tivity reporting.