On Thursday, the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed legislation that would provide some reforms to the terrorism watchlist and traveler screening processes.
The legislation, the Enhanced Oversight and Accountability in Screening Act, introduced by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) would improve screening processes at ports of entry while giving travelers who may end up on the terrorist watchlist an opportunity to remove themselves if they posed no national security threat. The bill would also help evaluate a ballooning set of screening processes while improving transparency about the processes, Peters said.
“Americans who pose no threat to national security should not face a maze of travel screenings and a flawed redress process,” Peters, chair of the committee, said. “My legislation will bring more transparency and accountability to our travel screening practices to ensure that the government is effectively protecting the nation, and agencies can carry out their missions while also protecting the civil rights and civil liberties of travelers.”
Peters published a report in December 2023 showing how travelers with no threat to national security, particularly members of the Arab, Muslim, and South Asian American communities, are sometimes caught up in well-intentioned screening practices. The practices are intended to protect the U.S. from terrorists, the senators’ office said, but since their inception have been expanded into a “layered and duplicative system” that is not only difficult for the government to explain, but difficult for American who have been flagged to extricate themselves from.
Peters said the legislation would require DHS to provide Congress with a plan to reform the redress process and to improve the experience of those who believe they have been wrongly subjected to additional screenings or experienced delays in travel. And the bill mandates that the DHS Secretary provide Congress with an assessment of the effectiveness of secondary inspections and screenings by the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.