Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely Redress Act of 2013” or the “FAST Redress Act of 2013”.
Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely Redress Act of 2013
A BILL
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish an appeal and redress process for individuals who are screened against the terrorist watchlist and wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight, or denied a right, benefit, or privilege, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Department of Homeland Security appeal and redress
In general— Subtitle H of title VIII of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
“890A. Appeal and redress
“(a) In general—The Secretary shall establish an Office of Appeals and Redress to implement and execute a redress process for individuals who believe they were wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a commercial aircraft or denied a right, benefit, or privilege by the Department because they were wrongly identified as a threat when screened against the terrorist watchlist used by the Transportation Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, or any office or component of the Department.
“(b) Director—The Office shall be headed by a Director, who shall be appointed by the Secretary and shall report to the Secretary.
“(c) Responsibilities—The Director shall carry out the following responsibilities:
“(1) Implement and maintain a redress process that includes an information technology system for purposes of providing redress to individuals who believe they were misidentified against the terrorist watchlist and that addresses case management, workflow, document management, recordkeeping, and interoperability issues identified by audits of the redress process in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this section.
“(2) Review, adjudicate, and respond in writing, within 30 days, to the greatest extent possible, to an individual who files an appeal and redress request with information relating to the disposition of such request.
“(3) Establish and maintain a Comprehensive Cleared List of individuals who, upon providing all information required by the Director to verify an individual’s identity, are determined by the Director to be misidentified.
“(4) Perform such other responsibilities as the Secretary may require.
“(d) Comprehensive Cleared List
“(1) In general—The Secretary shall ensure that the Comprehensive Cleared List is electronically integrated into the systems for screening individuals against the terrorist watchlist maintained by the Transportation Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, or any other office or component of the Department and shall—
“(A) transmit to other Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies and entities that use any terrorist watchlist the Comprehensive Cleared List and any other information the Secretary determines necessary to resolve misidentifications, as appropriate; and
“(B) work with other Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies or entities that use any terrorist watchlist to ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that the Comprehensive Cleared List is considered when assessing the security risk of an individual.
“(e) Handling of personally identifiable information—The Secretary, in conjunction with the Chief Privacy Officer of the Department, shall—
“(1) require that Federal employees of the Department handling personally identifiable information of individuals (in this paragraph referred to as PII) complete mandatory privacy and security training prior to being authorized to handle PII;
“(2) ensure that the information maintained under this subsection is secured by encryption, including one-way hashing, data anonymization techniques, or such other equivalent technical security protections as the Secretary determines necessary;
“(3) limit the information collected from individuals to the minimum amount necessary to resolve an appeal and redress request;
“(4) ensure that the information maintained under this subsection is shared or transferred via an encrypted data network that has been audited to ensure that the anti-hacking and other security related software functions perform properly and are updated as necessary;
“(5) ensure that any employee of the Department receiving the information maintained under this subsection handles such information in accordance with section 552a of title 5, United States Code, the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–296), and other applicable laws;
“(6) only retain the information maintained under this subsection for as long as needed to assist the individual in the appeal and redress process;
“(7) engage in cooperative agreements with appropriate Federal agencies and entities, on a reimbursable basis, to ensure that legal name changes are properly reflected in any terrorist watchlist and the Comprehensive Cleared List to improve the appeal and redress process and to ensure the most accurate lists of identifications possible (except that section 552a of title 5, United States Code, shall not prohibit the sharing of legal name changes among Federal agencies and entities for the purposes of this section);
“(8) ensure that the Chief Privacy Officer publishes an updated privacy impact assessment of the appeal and redress process established under this section and submit to the appropriate congressional committees such assessment; and
“(9) submit, on a quarterly basis, to the appropriate congressional committees—
“(A) data on the number of individuals who have sought and successfully obtained redress through the Office of Appeals and Redress during the immediately preceding quarter;
“(B) data on the number of individuals who have sought and were denied redress through the Office of Appeals and Redress during the immediately preceding quarter;
“(C) the average length of time for adjudication of completed applications during the immediately preceding quarter; and
“(D) a list of the grounds for denials, together with corresponding percentages for each such ground reflecting the frequency of use by the Office of Appeals and Redress during the immediately preceding quarter.
“(f) Initiation of appeal and redress process at airports and ports of entry—At each airport and port of entry at which—
“(1) the Department has a presence, the Office shall provide written information to individuals to begin the appeal and redress process established pursuant to subsection (a); and
“(2) the Department has a significant presence, provide the written information referred to in subparagraph (1) and ensure a Transportation Security Administration or United States Customs and Border Protection supervisor who is trained in such appeal and redress process is available to provide support to individuals in need of guidance concerning such process.
“(g) Inspector General review—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Inspector General of the Department shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the status of implementation of this section. The report shall include the following:
“(1) An evaluation of the appeal and redress process established pursuant to this section.
“(2) An assessment of the status of the Comprehensive Cleared List requirements, including the extent to which systems for screening individuals against the terrorist watchlist maintained by the Transportation Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, and other offices and components of the Department have electronically integrated the Comprehensive Cleared List.
“(3) An assessment of the impact of implementation of this section, including the integration of the Comprehensive Cleared List into the systems for screening individuals against the terrorist watchlist maintained by the Transportation Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, and other office or component of the Department has had on misidentifications of individuals.
“(h) Definitions
“(1) Appropriate congressional committee—In this section, the term appropriate congressional committee means the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and any committee of the House of Representatives or the Senate having legislative jurisdiction under the rules of the House of Representatives or Senate, respectively, over the matter concerned.
“(2) Terrorist watch list—In this section, the term terrorist watchlist means any terrorist watchlist or database used by the Transportation Security Administration, United States Customs and Border Protection, or any office or component of the Department of Homeland Security, or specified in Homeland Security Presidential Directive–6 to screen individuals, in effect as of the date of the enactment of this section.”
Authorization of appropriations— There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the amendments made by this section.
in subparagraph (C)(iii)—
by redesignating subclauses (II) through (VII) as subclauses (III) through (VIII), respectively; and
by inserting after subclause (I) the following new subclause:
“(II) ensure, not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of the FAST Redress Act of 2013, that the procedure established under subclause (I) is incorporated into the appeals and redress process established under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 2002;”
in subparagraph (E)(iii), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “, in accordance with the appeals and redress process established under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 2002”; and
in subparagraph (G)—
in clause (i), by adding at the end the following new sentence: “The Assistant Secretary shall incorporate the process established pursuant to this clause into the appeals and redress process established under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.”; and
in clause (ii), by adding at the end the following new sentence: “The Assistant Secretary shall incorporate the record established and maintained pursuant to this clause into the Comprehensive Cleared List established and maintained under section 890A of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.”.
Conforming amendment— Title 49, United States Code, is amended by striking section 44926 (and the item relating to such section in the analysis for chapter 449 of title 49).
Clerical amendment— Section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101(b)) is amended by adding after the item relating to section 890 the following new item: