Registered Traveler proponents are cheering yesterday's House passage of the Transportation Security Administration Authorization Act, claiming the bill would return benefits to a program that TSA has largely reduced to a front-of-the-line offering. However, the Senate has yet to introduce a counterpart bill, making the timeframe for a final law unclear.
With 397 votes in favor and only 25 opposed, the House yesterday overwhelmingly passed the bill—TSA's first authorization act since its formation in 2001—allocating more than $15.6 billion in transportation security programs for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
In addition to expanding private aviation security programs, bolstering security training for TSA employees and tripling funding for non-air security measures, the bill also includes legislative language that would reinstate security-threat assessments for the Registered Traveler program, undone by TSA last summer as it relinquished some involvement in the program
BTNonline, July 24, 2008).
Following TSA's move last year to relinquish some control of the program, then-TSA administrator Kip Hawley told
BTN the Registered Traveler program was nothing more than "a front-of-the-line program with a good biometric ID
BTNonline, Oct. 20, 2008)."
The House bill calls to "reinstate an initial and continuous security threat assessment program as part of the Registered Traveler enrollment process," and paves the way for more TSA oversight of the program and the potential for additional security checkpoint benefits.
Originating in the House Homeland Security Committee, the TSA authorization bill would need a Senate counterpart. Such a bill would likely originate in the Commerce Committee, which maintains oversight of TSA in the Senate. However, that committee has yet to introduce a bill and has a full legislative plate—from the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill to the FAA safety reform.
"There's not a Senate bill yet," said Monument Policy Group founder and partner Stewart Verdery, the National Business Travel Association's government affairs consultant. "There's some talk they might do a bill, but clearly that's second in priority to the FAA bill that they're working on."
Urging action in the Senate, NBTA president and CEO Kevin Maguire in a statement issued Thursday said, "NBTA is excited to see legislative efforts to enhance the Registered Traveler program, which has become popular with business traveler across the United States. We are hopeful that with direction from Congress, RT will become a true risk-management tool for secure and efficient air travel."
Speaking with
BTN last month after the House included the Registered Traveler amendment in the House bill, Charles Simon, senior vice president of public policy at Verified Identity Pass, operator of the Clear program, said the House recognizes that Registered Traveler "needs to be a risk-management program, not just, 'We should restart the security-threat assessment, but in addition to that, we should allow the service providers like Clear to conduct background checks that go beyond the security-threat assessment, of course on a voluntary basis.' "
Noting that TSA does not need congressional authority to revamp the program, Registered Traveler proponents said that even without a Senate companion bill, House passage demonstrates support for a renewed commitment to the program.