Oh. Got it.

Clear is certainly a paid pass to the front of the line and nothing more.

With respect to the new TSA pilot, it is neither paid (unless eligibility is based on a CBP TT membership) nor a pass to the front of the line. The reason it is not a pass to the front of the line is that access to expedited screening lanes is only granted at the TDC. Up until that point, a traveler eligible for expedited screening will be in the same lines as all other passengers.

As far as the expedited screening pilot being a trusted traveler program, it is sort of a hybrid. The primary component is essentially a risk analysis program being added to the SecureFlight process which will combine data from existing government databases with airline frequent flyer history and analyze it to determine if a traveler is a low risk. The parameters as to what the computer will consider a low risk traveler is obviously not public information.

The other way one can qualify for use of an expedited screening lane is though membership in a CBP TT program. It appears that membership in such a program is somewhat of an override of the risk analysis program and will grant expedited screening lane eligibility without any frequent flyer data. It also appears from reading between the lines that membership in one of these programs is an automatic grant of access to the expedited screening lane with the exception of random rejections to keep the bad guys guessing.

If the traveler is deemed to be low risk, SecureFlight sends a code back to the airline that the airline is supposed to put in the encrypted 2-D barcodes already on boarding passes. The passenger, of course, does not know if he has been selected for use of the expedited screening lane in advance (to keep the bad guys guessing). When the TDC scans the boarding pass, the traveler will be directed to the expedited screening lane—or not.

So, it is a risk analysis program where, reading between the lines, all trusted travelers are considered to be low risk. Like I said, a hybrid.