The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) praised the work of the Government Accountability Office…
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) praised the work of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to ensure that the operational and privacy requirements Congress outlined for the Secure Flight air passenger prescreening program are met by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
For passenger prescreening to be successful, law abiding citizens must have confidence that the system is effective and secure, that they have redress if the system improperly identifies them, and that their privacy is being respected, said Carol A. Devine, NBTA President and CEO. The GAO is doing a fine job of making sure that the Secure Flight program is held to these standards, as required by law.
NBTA members have consistently told the Association that they support effective prescreening, as long as the system meets the eight privacy and operational standards Congress originally outlined with CAPPS II. Since TSA discontinued the development of CAPPS II and introduced Secure Flight, Congress expanded the list of requirements to ten and applied it to Secure Flight.
The GAO report issued yesterday shows that TSA is making progress to meet the legal requirements for Secure Flight, but much work remains to be done, said Devine. Since announcing the program last summer, TSA seems to be acting on the concerns NBTA and other concerned groups have raised consistently over several years. With Congressional and GAO oversight, we believe a prescreening system can be developed that is effective and meets the privacy and operational requirements.
NBTA will continue to closely monitor the development of Secure Flight, and to voice its members’ insistence that any passenger prescreening program respect travelers’ privacy; provide a quick, clear method of redress; and not impose costly, cumbersome requirements on corporations to provide data on their travelers.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
