Protection from Abusive Passengers Act

Protection from Abusive Passengers Act

This bill addresses the banning of abusive passengers from commercial aircraft flights. Abusive passenger is defined as any individual who engages in behavior that results in a civil penalty or conviction for assaulting, threatening, or intimidating a crew member or passenger on an aircraft flight, or for taking any action to interfere with security screening personnel or any security system related to civil aviation security.

The bill requires the Federal Aviation Administration or the Department of Justice to provide the identity (including the full name, date of birth, and gender) of all abusive passengers to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The TSA must maintain a list of abusive passengers and develop and make publicly available policies and procedures for handling individuals included on the list. Any individual on the list is prohibited from boarding any commercial aircraft flight until the individual is removed from such list.

Additionally, all abusive passengers are permanently ineligible to participate in the TSA PreCheck or the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Global Entry programs, with specified exceptions.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov