FAST Redress Act of 2008

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. Mr. Speaker, I ask to revise and extend.

I want to add my appreciation to, again, the very, very able and distinguished Member Yvette Clarke from New York for her strong advocation for H.R. 4179 and legislation that came through the subcommittee of transportation security, which I chair, and her wisdom on bringing about a solution to a long-standing problem that we have seen come about after 9/11.

Every day, millions of Americans travel across the country and abroad by land, air, and sea. Unfortunately, we have a process in place, the terrorist watch list or database, which makes, or should make, traveling safe. However, there have been problems and misidentifications. Even air marshals have been denied boarding on air carriers on the very flights they were assigned to protect because of misidentification.

To date, more than 15,000 Americans have sought redress from the Transportation Security Administration and voluntarily provided information. But this system has not worked. We know two of our very own dear colleagues, Senator Kennedy and John Lewis, who I think have a pedigree beyond reproach, have been set aside, if you will, in trying to fly.

And so therefore, it is important to have a redress process that works and to assure that a person on the TSA's Clear List will not be stopped as a potential terrorist. H.R. 4179 by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke will establish an appeal and redress process to ensure that the Office of Appeals and Redress at the Department of Homeland Security actually work.

I do want to congratulate her for this forward thinking. I look forward to working with her as we move forward on additional legislation that addresses the question of dress. As we all know, imams who have cleared TSA could not board a plane in one of our midwest States because they were determined to be a threat when they had passed security, when their name was not on the watch list, and only because of religious actions.

And so this is an important step forward. We should be a Nation of security but also the protection of civil liberties. And I look forward to us making further steps to ensure that religious dress, attire, and talk does not in any way undermine your constitutional rights in this question.

My appreciation to Congresswoman Clarke. I ask my colleagues to enthusiastically support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 4179, To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an appeal and redress process for individuals wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight, and for other purposes, introduced by my distinguished colleague from New York, Representative Clarke, of which I am a proud original cosponsor. This important legislation will provide an effective and efficient mechanism through which Americans can seek redress.

Every day, millions of Americans travel across the country and abroad, by land, air, and sea. Fortunately, we have a process in place, the terrorist watch list or database, which makes travel safer for the traveling public. However, that very process has been plagued with problems and misidentifications. The American public has grown weary of the constant delays and misidentifications caused by incomplete and inaccurate information associated with the terrorist watch list or database.

For years, even Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) have been denied boarding by air carriers on the very flights they were assigned to protect because of misidentifications. To date, more than 15,000 Americans have sought redress from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and voluntarily provided personal information to facilitate travel and prevent further misidentifications and delays. While the TSA maintains a ``Cleared List'' for individuals who have the same or similar name or other identifier as someone on the ``No Fly'' or ``Selectee'' lists but have gone through the redress process, there is a significant stagnation in the columniation and sharing of information. The Cleared List is then shared with airlines for screening purposes but it is not shared within the Department of Homeland Security or with other Federal agencies that use the terrorist watch list or database. Therefore, despite going through the redress process, there's nothing to assure that a person on the TSA's ``Cleared List'' will not be stopped as a potential terrorist by other Federal agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Sharing information on the Comprehensive Cleared List between components of the Department would alleviate redundancy and reduce excessive delays.

H.R. 4179, the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely (FAST) Redress Act of 2008, will establish an appeal and redress process to ensure that the Office of Appeals and Redress at the Department of Homeland Security becomes the ``one-stop shop'' that the American public deserves.

This legislation will require the DHS Secretary to establish a timely and fair redress process for individuals who believe they have been delayed or prohibited from boarding a commercial plane or denied a right, benefit, or privilege by DHS, because they were wrongly identified as a threat when screened against any terrorist watch list or database. It would also require the Office of Appeals and Redress to maintain a Comprehensive Cleared List that contains the names of individuals who have been misidentified and have corrected erroneous information. The DHS Secretary would be required to furnish the Comprehensive Cleared List to all DHS components and to other Federal, State, local, and Tribal authorities and others that use the terrorist watch list or database, to resolve misidentifications.

This important legislation will consolidate agency knowledge by requiring the compilation of a comprehensive cleared list of individuals who have been misidentified. It furthermore requires that the correction of erroneous information be maintained by the Department and shared with those agencies that use the terrorist watch list or database. Our citizens must not only be afforded an effective redress process, they must also be assured that once they have voluntarily provided personal information and successfully achieved redress, they are not repeatedly subjected to further misidentifications. This legislation is supported by the National Business Travel Association, who wrote to the Committee on Homeland Security in support of H.R. 4179.

The FAST Redress Act of 2008 explicitly requires the DHS Secretary to assure that TSA, CBP, the Coast Guard and other DHS components reference the Comprehensive Cleared List when assessing the security risk of an individual. It furthermore authorizes the DHS Secretary to enter into Memoranda of Understanding with other Federal agencies to enhance redress, including addressing legal name changes.

This bipartisan legislation directs the Secretary to engage in cooperative agreements with other relevant agencies so that legal name changes are reflected on the watch list and the cleared list. When it comes to watch and cleared lists, accuracy is the key. This change ensures that the Department has the most accurate information to evaluate American citizens.

Mr. Speaker, it is time we protect the civil rights and civil liberties of American citizens and lawful permanent residents. This bill will help eliminate false identifications and increase efficiency for the traveling public and I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, I want to thank the chairman of the committee for granting me the time, and also for the work that he has done in working on a bipartisan basis with those of us on this side to bring a number of these bills to the floor.

Every month, Mr. Speaker, that the Federal Government and local law enforcement officials screen some 270 million individuals against a new and constantly evolving consolidated terrorist watch list, we actually are safer as a result of those actions. Since the Terrorist Screening Center's establishment in December of 2003, front line screeners using this watch list have encountered known or reasonably suspected terrorists over 55,000 times.

Now, I grant you that a name-based watch list certainly is not perfect. The problems are compounded by the fact that, in several cases, a single individual has over 50 identities on the watch list and, of course, this would eventually lead to misidentifications between law-abiding Americans and watch-listed identities.

These misidentifications are not simply persons with Arab names, as the press would have you believe. Actors, writers, yes, even as the gentleman from Mississippi mentioned, Congressmen and sometimes even former Presidential candidates have been inconvenienced by the terrorist watch list.

However, the bottom line is that the watch list stops would-be terrorists from entering the United States. According to Customs and Border Protection, on March 27, 2005, a CBP officer identified an individual who was a possible match to terrorist-related records. The ID resulted in a local joint terrorism task force arresting the passenger, who was later charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorism and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, or maim persons.

Similarly, CBP denied entry of a Palestine Liberation Organization weapons smuggler. The suspect was later charged with conspiracy to traffic in explosive devices and firearms.

The legislation before us today, introduced by the gentlelady from New York, is a good bill. It's the result of solid bipartisan negotiations, and I wish to thank her and her staff, as well as the chairman of the committee and the chairwoman of the subcommittee and their staffs, for working with us to develop a reasonable process to ensure that individuals who are frequently misidentified have an effective recourse to minimize future travel disruption.

Perhaps one of the most important provisions of the bill is the requirement that the Department of Homeland Security better advertise its redress process, known as TRIP, at airports.

When I hear from constituents that they're being misidentified as a watch-listed individual, I'm concerned they have not heard of the Department's process to seek redress. This bill requires the Department to advertise its redress process at each airport, and to have staff on hand at the largest airports to explain the process and answer questions from the traveling public.

Again, I thank the gentlelady for working with us and moving this legislation forward in a bipartisan manner, and look forward to its quick adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4179, the FAST Redress Act, is an important bill, and we should act on it today, and we should try and get concurrence with the Senate and have this on the President's desk so he can sign it so that we can take care of the problem of misidentifications on the terrorist screening list that we use for a legitimate purpose.

Similarly, Mr. Speaker, I would hope that we might have a fast redress act for the American people who are currently standing in line waiting to pay for their gasoline at larger and larger and larger prices. One of the things we need to do, in terms of this bill, is redress the misinformation that's contained on terrorist screener watch lists.

We similarly need to get rid of the misidentification that deals with the issue of Americans' need for energy and what ANWR represents. Rather than what we've heard on the floor on a number of different occasions, including today, that somehow ANWR is insignificant with respect to the great question of energy that currently approaches the American people, the facts say something very different.

In other words, if we check them against the facts as this bill wants us to check misidentifications against the factual determinations, we would find this: According to the United States Geological Survey, the mean estimate of technically recoverable oil, that's the kind of oil that we can bring up under already existing technology in the coastal plain of ANWR, is 10.4 billion barrels, all of which is now economically recoverable.

Now, what is 10.4 billion barrels? More than twice the proven oil reserves in all of the State of Texas. And you know how Texans like to brag about what they got and how big it is. This would be twice the proven oil reserves that are now found in all of Texas. That's almost half of the total U.S. proven reserve at 21 billion barrels. That represents a possible 50 percent increase in total U.S. proven reserves. That has been categorized on this floor as being insignificant and of having no impact on the current energy scene. I think checking it against the facts, we see that's wrong.

Based on the USGS mean estimate, ANWR would provide one million barrels per day for 30 years. That's one million barrels per day for 30 years. Now what would that represent? Some insignificant figure? No. That's a 20 percent increase in domestic, or as we would like to call it, American production. That's equivalent to what the entire State of Texas produces daily. And listen to this. That is the equivalent to 30 years' worth of imports from Hugo Chavez.

The coastal plain of ANWR, known as the 1002 area, is neither wilderness nor refuge. In fact, when I was here in this House privileged to serve in 1980, it was set aside by this Congress and then-President Carter specifically for future oil development.

Now, do we ever hear about that? That's as much as a misidentification of what the reality is of what we're talking about in this bill. Development would be limited to the 2,000 acres of the coastal plain. That would be 0.01 percent of the entire 19.6 million acre refuge.

So Mr. Speaker, as I said, I rise in support of this bill, H.R. 4179, which would correct misinformation contained in official documents that thereby inconveniences the American people. Similarly, if we took action on a Redress Act for energy on the American people, they would be less inconvenienced and we would be on our way to energy independence.

With that, I would reserve my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I would just say that this bill deserves the unanimous support of the Members of this body.

With that, I would yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4179) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an appeal and redress process for individuals wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4179, the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely Redress Act or FAST Redress Act was introduced last year by a relatively new member of the Homeland Security Committee, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke. Representative Clarke is to be commended for the yeoman's job she has done.

Everyone complains about the lack of sanity in the watch-listing process, but few have dared to wade into all the ins and outs of the system. Representative Clarke has done just that, and this legislation is the product of that thoughtful undertaking.

H.R. 4179 was marked up and approved on a bipartisan basis by the committees's Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee in early May. On May 20, 2008, the bill was marked up and adopted unanimously by the full committee.

This legislation, like other Homeland Security Committee bills that will be considered today, builds on the solid provisions in H.R. 1684, the Department of Homeland Security authorization bill that has been pending in the Senate since May of 2007.

Certainly, the practice of watch-listing individuals plays an important role in identifying possible terrorist suspects.

It is important to keep in mind that the watch list is only as good as the information on it. Without accurate, complete and reliable information, the purpose of the watch list is frustrated, the database becomes unreliable, and misidentifications persist.

Getting the watch list fixed and reducing misidentifications is a particularly difficult challenge. To do so, all the intelligence and law enforcement components that populate the list would need to come together and agree to clean it up. Unfortunately, this has not happened. Therefore, redress is the only real recourse for an American who is repeatedly stopped or delayed at airports and border crossings because one is misidentified as a terrorist threat.

Presently, there is a redress process available at DHS. Since February 2007, over 32,000 Americans have sought redress through DHS Traveler and Redress Inquiry Program, also known as DHS TRIP. Each individual voluntarily provided personal information to establish their identity. When there is a determination that this person is not a

threat, their names are placed on a ``cleared list'' that is maintained by the Transportation Security Administration.

This cleared list is populated with names of individuals who have the same or similar name as someone on the ``no fly'' or ``selectee'' lists, but have proven that they are not the person on the list. The cleared list is then shared with only the airlines for screening purposes.

Under H.R. 4179, it will be shared throughout DHS and with other Federal agencies that use the terrorist watch list database. This would assure that individuals that go through the redress process are not stopped as potential terrorists by other Federal agencies.

Specifically, H.R. 4179 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish the Office of Appeals and Redress to provide a timely and fair redress process. The Office of Appeals and Redress is directed to maintain a ``comprehensive cleared list'' that contains the names of individuals who have been misidentified and have corrected erroneous information.

The comprehensive cleared list would be made available to other Federal, State, local and Tribal authorities and others that use the terrorist watch list or database to resolve misidentification.

The bill directs TSA, CBP, the Coast Guard and other DHS components to reference the comprehensive cleared list when assessing the security risk of an individual. This would assure that individuals like our esteemed colleague, the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. John Lewis, would not be repeatedly stopped or delayed or have to seek redress from components in the same Federal agency.

H.R. 4179 also authorizes the DHS to enter into memoranda of understanding with other Federal agencies to enhance the redress process.

Importantly, the measure includes protections to assure that personally identifiable information is handled in accordance with privacy laws.

Once enacted, individuals that go through the trouble of clearing their names will not have to repeat the exercise again and again and again.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of every John Lewis and James Smith, I urge passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the author of this legislation, the Congresswoman from New York, Ms. Yvette Clarke.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional minute to the gentlelady.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Perlmutter).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as you have heard, H.R. 4179 is a commonsense Homeland Security legislation that has broad support. Representative Clarke, as well as Chairwoman Jackson-Lee and Ranking Member Lungren, ought to be commended for working together to get this critical legislation to the floor. We all know that the terrorist watch list has its problems. In fact, most of us fly a few times a week and have heard firsthand stories about people missing flights because they were misidentified against the watch list. We need to fix the watch list. That effort is ongoing and needs to continue. But at the same time, we need to provide people with a meaningful remedy.

The FAST Redress Act does just that. That is why I'm proud to cosponsor this legislation authored by my esteemed colleague, Ms. Clarke.

I urge passage of this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lungren, nearly everyone in the homeland security community agrees that having a single comprehensive list of terrorist suspects is an important tool in keeping America safe.

However, there are flaws in how the terrorist watch list is maintained and used. Perhaps the biggest problem is that every single day, countless Americans are misidentified as terrorists. These errors most commonly occur when an innocent person's name happens to be similar to one listed in the database. This results in wasted time, both for law enforcement, because they're using resources investigating innocent people, and for the general public who face the prospect of being wrongly detained and possibly altogether prevented from going about their business.

Most commonly, this affects air travelers who are screened against the watch list more often than anyone else. Currently, each time a reservation is made, airlines must determine whether a customer is a potential match based on information they receive from our government.

Every day, thousands of people are pulled aside, required to go through special procedures, detained, or even denied boarding altogether, at great cost to frustrated travelers who miss flights, which ruins plans, and at great cost to companies which depend on business travel whose employees miss meetings and lose productivity.

Because of the terrorist watch list that is being used for screening agencies, many people other than domestic air travelers have also been impacted by misidentifications. Some of these people include international travelers delayed or denied entry to the country by CBP; potential foreign visitors denied visas by the State Department, and other workers, port workers who have been incorrectly denied a transportation worker identification card, which is now required to work at a port facility in the United States. In the future, this will likely become a greater issue, as more potentially sensitive activities are tied to screening against the watch list.

In 2007, TSA attempted to address this issue by initiating a redress process called DHS TRIP. But this program has multiple problems, and its scope is limited just to air travelers. Because of the program's limitations, many travelers go through the process only to find they are again misidentified as terrorists in the future.

The FAST Redress Act solves this problem by granting DHS the tools to create a department-wide Office of Redress and Appeals, a one-stop shop for any individual who feels they are being incorrectly identified as a terrorist

whenever they have contact with our government.

Using the Office of Redress, people can voluntarily submit to our government and be put into a single comprehensive cleared list, ensuring they will avoid future misidentification when dealing with any Department entity.

This bill also allows the Secretary to enter into intergovernmental memorandums of understanding so this cleared list can be used by all government screening entities.

This bill will greatly streamline the process for the countless people who, just because of their names, are regularly misidentified as a terrorist, creating a single, high visible office within our government for everyone who wants to clear their names.

I'm very thankful to Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member King, along with TS&IP Chairwoman Jackson-Lee and Ranking Member Lungren for recognizing the importance of this issue and their great bipartisan efforts pushing the FAST Redress Act forward.

I also thank the staff on both sides of the Homeland Security Committee for their hard work and the time they put into this bill.

Further, since introduction, this bill has received the strong support of the National Business Travel Association, who recognize its benefits for the business travel community. I thank them for their support which remains instrumental as we continue to make this bill law.

Finally, I'd like to thank the people of Central Brooklyn that filed into my district office week after week seeking relief after being misidentified against the watch list.

The challenges that they faced served as the brainchild for this legislation.

I ask my colleagues to join me in the restoration of civil liberties, creating a truly fair, accurate, secure and timely redress process. I ask them to join me in support of the bipartisan bill, H.R. 4179, the FAST Redress Act of 2008.

Madam Speaker, I rise to express my strong support for these six bills brought forth by the Committee on Homeland Security. I would like to commend Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member King for their continued efforts and leadership on presenting legislation to enhance and strengthen our Nation's security. I would also like to congratulate my colleagues on the committee who authored these bills--Chairman Thompson, Congresswoman Clarke, Congresswoman Lowey, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Congressman Dent and Congressman Langevin.

The enactment of H.R. 1, The Implementing 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act, was a major milestone for this Congress and I was proud to be a conferee to H.R. 1. With the passage of H.R. 1, Congress took the lead in making America more secure. H.R. 1 was a comprehensive measure to enhance our Nation's homeland security capabilities in profound ways.

The Homeland Security Committee has conducted numerous hearings to investigate the many areas covered by H.R. 1 and has worked diligently at developing legislation that focuses on specific areas of homeland security that require fine tuning in order to make H.R. 1 as effective as possible.

The bills being considered today will do everything from providing redress to Americans misidentified against the terror watch lists to enhancing DHS' capability to address the threat of improvised-explosive devices to ensuring the integrity of aviation security covert tests.

H.R. 4179, the Fast Redress Act of 2008, would enhance information sharing at DHS and between DHS and other Federal agencies that use the terrorist watch list or database. The bill also includes measures that would make the redress process more efficient and protect the civil rights of individuals on TSA's ``Cleared List'' and ``No Fly'' or ``Selectee'' lists.

H.R. 5909 is vitally important given the Committee's knowledge of at least three incidents that compromised the integrity of covert tests at TSA's screening checkpoints. It provides for security measures that would prevent disclosures that will jeopardize covert testing. H.R. 5982 will also enhance airport security by requiring information sharing on best practices for using biometrics to improve airport security. H. Res. 1150 recognizes the continued importance of rail security and ensuring that it is given equal importance in our national transportation security plans.

Bombing prevention is an integral part of our national security and requires that we provide the necessary resources for this purpose. H.R. 4749 does this by increasing funding and the capabilities of the Office of Bombing Prevention. Along similar lines, The Nuclear Forensics Attribution Act authorizes programs within DHS to develop an international framework to identify and intercept nuclear materials further reducing the possibilities of nuclear threat worldwide.

Lastly, I support H.R. 1333 which calls for both GAO and the DHS Secretary to examine and prepare a report on how the Civil Air Patrol can be integrated in our efforts to enhance national security and our war against terrorism. This is a positive effort in using local resources in supporting our homeland security mission.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support these bipartisan bills that have been thoughtfully crafted to enhance national security measures that are important to the implementation of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007.