Sec. 1533. Prohibition of advance notice of covert testing to security screeners
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Section 44935 of title 49, United States Code, as amended by this Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: The Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration shall ensure, to the greatest extent practicable, that information concerning a covert test of a transportation security system to be conducted by a covert testing office, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, or the Government Accountability Office is not provided to any individual involved in such test prior to the completion of such test.
Notwithstanding paragraph (1)— an authorized individual involved in a covert test of a transportation security system may provide information concerning such covert test to— employees, officers, and contractors of the Federal Government (including military personnel); employees and officers of State and local governments; and law enforcement officials who are authorized to receive or directed to be provided such information by the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, or the Comptroller General of the United States, as the case may be; and for the purpose of ensuring the security of any individual in the vicinity of a site at which a covert test of a transportation security system is being conducted, an individual conducting such test may disclose his or her status as an individual conducting such test to any appropriate individual if a security screener or other individual who is not a covered employee identifies the individual conducting such test as a potential threat.
The head of each covert testing office shall ensure that a person or group of persons conducting a covert test of a transportation security system for a covert testing office is accompanied at the site of such test by a cover team composed of one or more employees of such covert testing office for the purpose of monitoring such test and confirming the identity of personnel involved in such test under subparagraph (B). Under this paragraph, a cover team for a covert test of a transportation security system shall— monitor such test; and for the purpose of ensuring the security of any individual in the vicinity of a site at which such test is being conducted, confirm, notwithstanding paragraph (1), the identity of any individual conducting such test to any appropriate individual if a security screener or other individual who is not a covered employee identifies the individual conducting such test as a potential threat.
Notwithstanding subparagraph (A), the Transportation Security Administration is not required to have a cover team present during a test of the screening of persons, carry-on items, or checked baggage at an aviation security checkpoint at or serving an airport if such test— is approved, in coordination with the designated security official for the airport operator by the Federal Security Director for such airport; and is carried out under an aviation screening assessment program of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Transportation Security Administration may use employees, officers, and contractors of the Federal Government (including military personnel) and employees and officers of State and local governments or any personnel authorized by the Federal Security Director to conduct covert tests. In this subsection, the following definitions apply: The term appropriate individual , as used with respect to— a covert test under paragraph (2)(B) of a transportation security system, means any individual who the individual conducting such test determines needs to know his or her status as an individual conducting such test; or a covert test under paragraph (3)(B)(i), means any individual who the cover team monitoring such test determines needs to know the identity of such cover team.
The term covered employee means any individual who receives notice of a covert test before the completion of a test under paragraph (2)(B). The term covert test means an exercise or activity conducted by a covert testing office, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, or the Government Accountability Office to intentionally test, compromise, or circumvent transportation security systems to identify vulnerabilities in such systems. Notwithstanding clause (i), the term covert test does not mean an exercise or activity by an employee or contractor of the Transportation Security Administration to test or assess compliance with relevant regulations.
The term covert testing office means any office of the Transportation Security Administration designated by the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration to conduct covert tests of transportation security systems. The term employee of a covert testing office means an individual who is an employee of a covert testing office or a contractor or an employee of a contractor of a covert testing office. .