H.R. 8645, Improved Screening for Veterans and Passengers with Disabilities Act
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 12, 2024
By Fiscal Year, Millions of Dollars
2024
2024-2029
2024-2034
Direct Spending (Outlays)
0
0
0
Revenues
0
0
0
Increase or Decrease (-) in the Deficit
0
0
0
Spending Subject to Appropriation (Outlays)
0
4
not estimated
Increases net direct spending in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2035?
No
Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply?
No
Mandate Effects
Increases on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2035?
No
Contains intergovernmental mandate?
No
Contains private-sector mandate?
No
Summary
H.R. 8645 would waive the fee for severely disabled veterans, as defined in the bill, who wish to enroll in the PreCheck program operated by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). PreCheck expedites the security screening process for commercial airline travelers and must be renewed every five years. Eligible veterans would need to satisfy the applicable security requirements for participating in PreCheck, including a background check.
About 20 million people (or 7 percent of the adult population) are enrolled in PreCheck. The fee ranges from $78 to $85 for new enrollees and from $69 to $78 for renewals, depending on how the traveler applies for PreCheck. Those amounts cover the cost of the background check. Using information from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), CBO estimates that about 325,000 veterans would meet the qualifications for the fee waiver.
CBO expects that some of those veterans would take advantage of the fee waiver to enroll in PreCheck for the first time and that eligible veterans who already have PreCheck benefits would reenroll using the waiver sometime over the next five years. CBO has no specific data on disabled veterans enrolled in PreCheck, but we assume that disabled veterans enroll at the same rate as the general population. On that basis, CBO estimates that around 7 percent of disabled veterans (or about 24,000 veterans) are already enrolled in the program and would reenroll at no cost over the next five years.
