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Klobuchar Continues Push to Help Innocent Travelers Stuck on Terrorist Watch List

New report raises questions about policy decision-making process at TSA

August 13, 2008

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar continued her push to help thousands of American travelers who experience delays and other inconveniences because their names are mistakenly flagged by U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Terrorist Screening Database (commonly known as the terrorist watch list).  Klobuchar wrote the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator, Kip Hawley, asking why his agency previously collected and maintained records on over 16,000 travelers who simply went to airport checkpoints without identification. 

Klobuchar also pressed Hawley to answer why he changed that policy within hours after being questioned about the merits of such a policy by a reporter.  Klobuchar states in the letter, “While I appreciate that the TSA no longer maintains a database of innocent travelers who forget their IDs at the airport, that a change could be implemented because of a reporter’s aggressive questioning begs the question about how policy decisions are made at the TSA.  This type of decision making simply undermines confidence in the TSA.”

Earlier this month, Klobuchar introduced legislation with Senator John Thune (R-SD) to require the Department of Homeland Security to establish a “one-stop-shop” to make it quicker and easier for innocent Americans to get their names cleared from the terrorist watch list.

The full text of the letter to Administrator Hawley is below:

August 13, 2008

The Honorable Kip Hawley
Administrator
Transportation Security Agency
601 South 12th Street
Arlington, VA 22202-4220

Dear Administrator Hawley:

I am writing to once again express my concern about the implementation and administration of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) terrorist watch list policies.  As has been reported in the August 13, 2008 USA Today, the TSA previously collected and maintained records on over 16,000 travelers who simply went to airport checkpoints without identification.  For these passengers, TSA added their names to a database that also included a list of travelers who had violated security laws or were questioned at an airport for suspicious behavior.  Once on this list, these innocent passengers could have faced extra scrutiny at airports – and elsewhere – by law enforcement authorities.

As I have said before, watch list programs are an essential tool to combat terrorism.  Implemented properly, these programs can help prevent and deter those who want to do us harm from taking to the skies.  But the TSA’s current watch list programs cast too broad a net, inconveniencing thousands of innocent passengers with unnecessary delays and humiliating searches.  Today’s revelation that the TSA maintained records on travelers who did nothing but show up to the airport without ID further underscores the need for federal legislation to protect American travelers from watch list misidentifications.

Furthermore, it was reported that you changed the TSA’s record collection policy for passengers without IDs within hours after being questioned about the merits of such a policy by a reporter.  While I appreciate that the TSA no longer maintains a database of innocent travelers who forget their IDs at the airport, that a change could be implemented because of a reporter’s aggressive questioning begs the question about how policy decisions are made at the TSA.  This type of decision making simply undermines confidence in the TSA.   

I look forward to hearing your response to the issues raised in this letter.

Sincerely yours,
/s

Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator

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