S 1804 Introduced – Aviation Security

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post Sen. Tester (D,MT) introduced S 1804, the Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2013. As I suspected this is pretty nearly a companion bill to HR 1204 which was recently passed in the House. The language in this proposed legislation is very nearly identical to the language reported in, and subsequently passed by, the House.

The only significant differences between the House bill and this one is that the membership of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) would, in this version, also include members representing “airport construction and maintenance contractors, [and] labor organizations representing employees of airport construction and maintenance contractors”{§44946(c)(1)(C)}. To accommodate the additional personnel the Committee membership is expanded from a minimum of 32 members to 34 members {§44946(c)(1)(B)}.

None of these changes will affect the chances of the bill passing. If the Senate takes up S 1804 (probably in an end of day unanimous-consent, no-vote, approval) it will be substituted for the House language an HR 1204 and be returned to the House. If this is the only change made, I would expect that the House to accept the Senate’s amendment and approve the bill.

HR 1204 Passed in House

After less than 15 minutes of debate today the House adopted HR 1204, the Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2013 by a strongly bipartisan vote of 411 - 3. The bill would establish the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC) which would advise DHS on matters of aviation security and provide the regulated commercial aviation communities a voice in the regulatory development process.

As I noted earlier the House Homeland Security Committee’s report on HR 1204 was published yesterday (and became available this morning on the GPO web site) along with the revised language adopted by the Committee. Changes adopted in the new language included:

• Required TSA to explain to Congress why it does not adopt ASAC recommendations;

• Expand maximum ASAC membership from 30 to 32 organizations;

• Add ‘‘businesses that conduct security operations at airports” and “aeronautical repair stations” to the organizations to be represented in ASAC membership;

• Change the name of the ‘Perimeter Security Subcommittee’ to the ‘Perimeter Security, Exit Lane Security, and Access Control Subcommittee’; and

• Add a ‘Security Technololgy Subcommittee’.

If and when the bill makes it to the floor of the Senate, it will likely pass “without objection” with even less debate than happened today.