H.R. 7365, VETS Safe Travel Act

H.R. 7365 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.

Waiving the fee for eligible veterans would provide an incentive for veterans who do not currently use PreCheck to enroll in the program; however, those veterans would still need to complete various administrative requirements, which could limit their enrollment. Accordingly, CBO estimates that the number of eligible veterans enrolled in PreCheck would double over the next five years, resulting in 24,000 new enrollees. Because veterans receiving fee waivers would still need to undergo background checks, TSA’s net cost for the background checks would increase. Based on the estimated fees and the number of veterans receiving fee waivers, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost about $4 million over the 2025-2029 period. Those costs could be higher or lower than CBO estimates depending on the number of eligible veterans who ultimately apply for PreCheck.

In addition, the bill would codify TSA’s efforts to conduct outreach to disabled veterans and require TSA and VA to report to the Congress. Based on the cost of similar activities, CBO estimates that those requirements would cost less than $500,000 over the 2025-2029 period.

The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget functions 400 (transportation) and 700 (veterans benefits and services). Any spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

On July 25, 2024, CBO transmitted acost estimate for H.R. 8645, the Improved Screening for Veterans and Passengers with Disabilities Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security on June 12, 2024. The two bills are similar, and CBO’s estimates of their budgetary effects are the same.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Emma Uebelhor. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.

Phillip L. Swagel

Director, Congressional Budget Office