Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely Redress Act of 2008

FAIR, ACCURATE, SECURE, AND TIMELY REDRESS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - June 18, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CLARKE. 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 SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman from New York has expired.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source