Bill to help remove people remove themselves from TSA watch list passes House John Byrne

Published: Wednesday February 4, 2009





Print This Email This Almost unanimously, the House of Representatives adopted a bill late Tuesday night aiming to help people remove themselves from the flawed US "terror watch list."



The bill, sponsored by Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), passed 413-3.



The bill requires Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to establish a "timely and fair" appeal process and provide relief for those wrongly delayed or prevented from boarding a flight.



Its passage reflects a widespread belief that the list has caused undue difficulty for thousands of travelers -- many of whom were prevented from traveling simply because their names shared similarities with suspects.



The bill would also spur the creation of an Office of Appeals and Redress to create a "comprehensive cleared list" of people who've been inappropriately added to watch lists or government databases.



"The watch list is only as good as the information on it," House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told CQ .



The "cleared" list would then be supplied to DHS agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration.



"When the terror watch lists hit one million records last summer, it became painfully clear that this system is fatally flawed," Timothy Sparapani, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel, said in a statement to Raw Story. "Representative Clarke's bill is significant in that it provides the individual with a means of seeking redress through appeal, and those erroneously caught up in the web of watch lists will be well-served. But the burden of correcting the error still remains on the victim and not those responsible for allowing the lists to grow exponentially."



"In order to make the current watch lists more effective in keeping our nation safe, they need to be scrubbed, retaining only individuals for whom there is credible evidence of terrorist ties or activities," he added. "But it remains critical that Congress and the Obama administration reexamine and reform our whole approach to the watch list system."



