TSA Commuting Fairness Act
The TSA Commuting Fairness Act would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to study whether the time TSA employees spend traveling from their regular TSA duty locations to airport parking lots and to bus and transit stops should be treated as on-duty time. The study must be completed within 270 days of enactment and consider factors such as travel time at different sizes of hub airports, the impact on employees and the agency, the use of mobile/location data to track arrivals and departures, and the potential costs and retirement-credit implications of designating this travel time as on-duty hours. The bill does not immediately change how commuting time is treated but sets up a detailed feasibility review to determine if such a policy could or should be adopted in the future. If enacted, the bill could lead to employees’ commuting time being credited as on-duty time (potentially affecting pay, overtime eligibility, and retirement calculations), but it would also raise administrative and privacy questions and could increase overall labor costs for TSA.
Key Points
- 1Short title: The act may be cited as the “TSA Commuting Fairness Act.”
- 2Feasibility study requirement: Within 270 days after enactment, TSA must study the feasibility of treating commuting time between regular duty locations and airport parking lots and bus/transit stops as on-duty hours.
- 3Scope of study: Must consider travel time to and from airport parking lots and transit stops at small, medium, and large hub airports (as defined in 49 U.S.C. 40102), average commuting time, potential benefits to employees and the agency, reporting methods (including mobile phones/location data), and estimated costs.
- 4Retirement and pay considerations: The study should assess whether such on-duty time could be creditable as basic pay for retirement purposes and other related costs.
- 5Reporting to committees: The Administrator must submit the feasibility study to relevant House and Senate committees (House: Homeland Security; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Senate: Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation).