49 U.S.C. § 44925 : US Code - Section 44925: Deployment and use of detection equipment at airport screening checkpoints

Search 49 U.S.C. § 44925 : US Code - Section 44925: Deployment and use of detection equipment at airport screening checkpoints

(a) Weapons and Explosives. - The Secretary of Homeland Security
shall give a high priority to developing, testing, improving, and
deploying, at airport screening checkpoints, equipment that detects
nonmetallic, chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, and
explosives, in all forms, on individuals and in their personal
property. The Secretary shall ensure that the equipment alone, or
as part of an integrated system, can detect under realistic
operating conditions the types of weapons and explosives that
terrorists would likely try to smuggle aboard an air carrier
aircraft.
(b) Strategic Plan for Deployment and Use of Explosive Detection
Equipment at Airport Screening Checkpoints. -
(1) In general. - Not later than 90 days after the date of
enactment of this section, the Assistant Secretary of Homeland
Security (Transportation Security Administration) shall submit to
the appropriate congressional committees a strategic plan to
promote the optimal utilization and deployment of explosive
detection equipment at airports to screen individuals and their
personal property. Such equipment includes walk-through explosive
detection portals, document scanners, shoe scanners, and
backscatter x-ray scanners. The plan may be submitted in a
classified format.
(2) Content. - The strategic plan shall include, at minimum -
(A) a description of current efforts to detect explosives in
all forms on individuals and in their personal property;
(B) a description of the operational applications of
explosive detection equipment at airport screening checkpoints;
(C) a deployment schedule and a description of the quantities
of equipment needed to implement the plan;
(D) a description of funding needs to implement the plan,
including a financing plan that provides for leveraging of non-
Federal funding;
(E) a description of the measures taken and anticipated to be
taken in carrying out subsection (d); and
(F) a description of any recommended legislative actions.
(c) Portal Detection Systems. - There is authorized to be
appropriated to the Secretary of Homeland Security for the use of
the Transportation Security Administration $250,000,000, in
addition to any amounts otherwise authorized by law, for research,
development, and installation of detection systems and other
devices for the detection of biological, chemical, radiological,
and explosive materials.
(d) Interim Action. - Until measures are implemented that enable
the screening of all passengers for explosives, the Assistant
Secretary shall provide, by such means as the Assistant Secretary
considers appropriate, explosives detection screening for all
passengers identified for additional screening and their personal
property that will be carried aboard a passenger aircraft operated
by an air carrier or foreign air carrier in air transportation or
intrastate air transportation.