In December, after a series of embarrassing airport security incidents involving elderly women, Senator Chuck Schumer called on the TSA to implement "passenger advocates" at airports. These advocates would, in theory, be summoned by passengers "to hear their concerns" if they feel they’ve been inappropriately treated by transportation security officers. Schumer says the TSA ignored his request, so now he's kicking it up a notch by introducing legislation that would require the agency to provide passenger advocates.

"Going through security at our nation’s airports should not be a humiliating or degrading experience," Schumer said in a statement. "Because the TSA has refused to put passenger advocates at our nation’s airports, today I’m introducing legislation that would force them to do so." Schumer cites one incident in which a female passenger at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport claimed that TSA officers forced her to walk through an airport body scanner three times "for the purposes of merely seeing her image through the full body scanner... According to the passenger, at one point, she was asked if she played tennis because of her ‘cute’ figure."

In another incident, an 85-year-old woman was strip-searched at JFK, and after that an 88-year-old woman came forward to say that the TSA had ordered her strip-searched so they could check her colostomy bag. Schumer’s legislation, the Restoring Integrity and Good-Heartedness in Traveler Screening Act, the RIGHTS Act, would specifically:

  • Require the TSA establish an “Office for Passenger Support” within the agency that would solicit and record complaints from the general public regarding screening practices at TSA.
  • Require every airport where TSA operates to have at least one TSA Passenger Advocate on-duty at all times.
  • Mandate every airport where TSA operates have clearly visible signage at each gate explaining that a TSA passenger advocate can be summoned if a passenger believes that a TSA employee has mistreated them on the basis of a medical condition, disability, age, race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
  • Establish best practices to resolve frequent public complaints and conduct training of TSA officers to resolve frequently occurring passenger complaints.
  • Resolve passenger complaints in real-time at airports.
  • And field advance notification calls from individuals with medical conditions or disabilities to pre-arrange for a screening process at the airport that ensures the safety of the flight without causing undue hardship for the disabled passenger.

We don't see anything in there about not stealing cash or leaving suggestive notes in passengers' luggage, but that'll probably be worked out when the bill gets to committee.