Schumer: Check transit employees against terror watch lists

Records show the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration have an action pending to require the screenings, but the policy hasn’t been finalized. Schumer said the agency should move faster to enact it.

Schumer, the incoming Senate minority leader, said it is “shocking that this commonsense safety gap was never closed.”

A Homeland Security spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government maintains several types of terror watch lists. According to the National Counterterrorism Center, about 1.1 million people, including about 25,000 U.S. citizens, were on the 2013 version of the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a repository of information used to compile the consolidated Terrorist Screening Database.

About 420,000 people are on the so called no-fly list, a subsection of the larger FBI Terrorist Screening Database. Civil libertarians have argued many people on such lists have never been accused of a crime and have no connection to terrorism.

In a May report, Homeland Security’s Inspector General said the Transportation Security Administration, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, “has not urgently prioritized the need to implement these rail security requirements.”

TSA attributed the delays in implementing the policy to the complex federal rulemaking process, the report said, adding that without the requirement TSA could not force Amtrak to implement new screening protocols.

Schumer: Check transit employees against terror watch lists

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