S. 2361 would require the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to undertake a variety of activities to improve the effectiveness of processes for screening, vetting, and credentialing personnel at airports, particularly individuals with access to secure areas. Such activities would include using risk-based models for screening airport employees based on the level of security of areas they access, reviewing procedures related to vetting employees and auditing airports’ issuance of credentials, studying opportunities to enhance security of entry and exit areas of secure areas of airports, and other security-related and administrative activities. The bill also would direct the agency to increase covert tests of security measures at secure areas of airports and require a variety of studies and reports.
According to TSA, many of the requirements specified in S. 2361 are largely consistent with current administrative policy. As a result, CBO estimates that any increased spending by TSA to meet the bill’s requirements would total less than $500,000; any such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. According to TSA, some of the analyses and reports required by the bill could result in changes in policies that, if implemented, might affect the agency’s costs in future years. Any such effects would depend on the outcome of such analyses and are not reflected in this estimate.
Because enacting S. 2361 would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting S. 2361 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
S. 2361 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
S. 2361 contains provisions related to screening personnel at airports that are similar to provisions in other bills for which CBO has transmitted cost estimates. In all cases, our estimates of budgetary effects of such provisions are the same. In particular:
On July 24, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2750, the Improved Security Vetting for Aviation Workers Act of 2015, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 25, 2015;
On November 4, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 3102, the Airport Access Control Security Improvement Act of 2015, as passed by the House of Representatives on October 6, 2015; and,
On November 4, 2015, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 3584, the Transportation Security Administration Reform and Improvement Act of 2015, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security on September 30, 2015.
