To ensure a timely, fair, meaningful, and transparent process for individuals to seek redress because they were wrongly identified as a threat under the screening and inspection regimes used by the Department of Homeland Security, to require a report on the effectiveness of enhanced screening programs of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Enhanced Oversight and Accountability in Screening Act creates a 15-25 member advisory committee to oversee DHS screening and watchlisting processes, requires DHS to develop a plan to improve traveler redress, mandates annual Attorney General reports on the terrorist watchlist, and requires annual DHS reports on the effectiveness of enhanced screening programs at airports and ports of entry.
Who Benefits and How
US travelers who are wrongly identified or mismatched to watchlists benefit from improved redress processes and increased transparency. Civil rights and civil liberties organizations gain formal advisory roles in screening oversight. Congress gains detailed annual data on screening effectiveness, watchlist management, and civil rights impacts.
Who Bears the Burden and How
DHS bears substantial compliance burden in establishing the advisory committee, developing the redress improvement plan, and producing detailed annual screening effectiveness reports. The Attorney General must produce annual watchlist reports in consultation with multiple agencies. TSA and CBP must collect and provide granular screening data to the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.
Key Provisions
- Creates a Screening and Watchlisting Advisory Committee with civil society representation (Section 3)
- Requires DHS Plan to Improve Redress within 2 years with public version (Section 4)
- Mandates annual Attorney General reports on terrorist watchlist criteria and usage (Section 4)
- Requires 10 years of annual reports on enhanced screening effectiveness with civil rights analysis (Section 5)
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Establishes a DHS Screening and Watchlisting Advisory Committee, requires a plan to improve traveler redress processes, mandates annual reports on the terrorist watchlist and enhanced screening program effectiveness, and strengthens civil rights oversight of DHS screening.
Key Policy Areas
Homeland Security, Civil Rights, Government Oversight
Primary Purpose
Establishes a DHS Screening and Watchlisting Advisory Committee, requires a plan to improve traveler redress processes, mandates annual reports on the terrorist watchlist and enhanced screening program effectiveness, and strengthens civil rights oversight of DHS screening.
Policy Domains
DHS Screening and Redress Oversight
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Travelers subject to wrongful screening
- Civil rights organizations
- Congressional oversight committees
- Privacy advocates
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- DHS
- TSA
- CBP
- Attorney General/DOJ
- Office of Homeland Security Statistics
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Legislative Progress
ReportedReported by Mr. Peters, with an amendment
Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was read twice …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Attorney General/DOJ, Congressional oversight committees, DHS
Positive-direction: Congressional oversight committees
Negative-direction: Attorney General/DOJ, DHS, DHS/TSA/CBP, Office of Homeland Security Statistics, TSA and CBP
Travelers subject to enhanced screening, Travelers subject to screening, Wrongly identified travelers
Civil rights and civil liberties organizations, Privacy and civil liberties advocates
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "CBP"
- → Provides screening data at ports of entry (Sec 3, 5)
- "TSA"
- → Provides screening data, implements covered processes (Sec 3, 5)
- "Congress"
- → Receives reports, briefings, and advisory committee recommendations
- "Attorney General"
- → Submits annual watchlist reports in consultation with DNI, SecState, SecDef (Sec 4)
- "Comptroller General"
- → Reviews initial screening effectiveness report (Sec 5)
- "Secretary of Homeland Security"
- → Establishes advisory committee, develops redress plan, submits screening reports (Sec 3, 4, 5)
- "Office of Homeland Security Statistics"
- → Collects and analyzes screening data (Sec 5)
- "Screening and Watchlisting Advisory Committee"
- → Advises DHS on screening policies, redress, and civil rights (Sec 3)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
DHS process to resolve requests by individuals to address issues relating to travel such as denied boarding, delayed entry/exit, or repeated additional screening
Process by which DHS confirms whether a US person denied boarding and who applied for redress is on the No Fly List
Practices, policies, and programs for primary, secondary, enhanced, and additional screenings, vettings, inspections at airports and ports of entry, including watchlist-related processes
Has the meaning given terrorist screening database in section 2101 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology