Congress Restricts TSA Security Fees

The Transportation Security Administration has been limited in the amount of security fees it can charge flyers.

According to an article from The Hill, Congress voted 423-0 in favor of a measure that would allow the TSA to charge only $5.60 per one-way trip and $11.20 per round trip. In 2013, the budget accord redefined the parameters of the TSA security fees and allowed the agency to remove the previous fee cap of $10.

North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, the bill’s sponsor, reportedly said the legislation was necessary because “the TSA had misinterpreted the increase on airline security fees outlined by the 2013 budget agreement by charging more than twice the amount for round trips as for one-way trips.”

In the 2013 fiscal year, the total amount of aviation security fee collections was $2.3 billion according to TSA records. Of that $2.3 billion, $1.88 billion was funded by air travelers. Total aviation security expenses were $6.8 billion during the same period.

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was quoted as saying the legislation would ensure that passengers pay reasonable fees for round trips, instead of more than twice the cost of a one-way trip. “Simply put, this straightforward, bipartisan legislation will ensure that passengers are no longer charged air transportation fees above and beyond what Congress envisioned and intended,” Jackson Lee stated.

The Hill article noted that the U.S. Travel Association responded that while the measure was “an improvement,” expenditure of the fees should be limited to those projects that would directly benefit passengers and not applied toward anything else in the agency. U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow was quoted as saying, “Even with this notable improvement, we still believe the current TSA fee fails to meet a critical criterion for acceptable travel user fees.”

The TSA did not respond to FlyerTalk’s request for comment.

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