Imagine?
You are an international traveler returning from abroad, facing two, maybe three flights just to get home.
And not having to worry about being screened at each airport.
A new bill approved by the House of Representatives might just make that reality.
The One-Stop Pilot Program Act (H.R. 4094) won approval by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, a bill that would allow Americans flying home from an international destination to be screened just once without having to go through rescreening before continuing from their airport of entry to a connecting destination.
The bill still needs approval from the Senate, which will consider it in the Transportation Committee.
According to Travel Weekly, as a safeguard participating airports would have to conduct their screenings using standards that are deemed by the Transportation Security Administration to be comparable to U.S. procedures.
In addition, passengers arriving in the U.S. would not be allowed to access their checked baggage until arriving at their final destinations.
There might be one tricky logistical issue - passengers arriving in the U.S. under the pilot program would have to be kept separate from other arriving international passengers until those passengers are screened by TSA.
The bill would authorize the pilot program for up to five years, at which point the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA, would be required to report back to Congress on its results and on the feasibility of expanding one-stop screening permanently to more foreign airports.
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