California Bill Seeks to Cut Clear From PreCheck Lines
Joe Cortez April 24, 2024
Introduced in February 2024, California Senate Bill 1372 seeks to prevent Clear and other third-party vendors from providing pre-screening services which would utilize current Transportation Security Administration lanes.
Law Would Change Clear Operations at Eight California Airports
Currently, Clear operates pre-screening at eight California airports, including Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK), and Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC). At each kiosk, flyers scan their boarding passes and either their eyes or fingerprints to verify their identification. Once successful, they are escorted to the front of the TSA line for security screening.
In a briefing to the State Senate’s Transportation Committee, Democrat Sen. Josh Newman claims that Clear is responsible for “numerous security violations, including at least one incident where a person using a boarding pass they’d found in the trash was escorted through security by CLEAR personnel.” Representing a portion of Southern California, the legislator also accuses the provider of creating an unfair system for those willing to pay Clear’s annual fee.
“While CLEAR may save time for its high-paying customers, it does so at the direct expense of average airport travelers who, having finally made it to the front of a security line, often find themselves being pushed aside to make way for a CLEAR subscriber,” Newman writes in his analysis. “[The bill] would require CLEAR and other companies offering similar services at California airports to operate in a dedicated security lane, separate from general security and TSA PreCheck passengers, thereby ensuring a consistent and equitable experience for all air travelers.”
If the bill were to become law, airports would be unable to sign into new agreements with Clear or other third-party providers after January 1, 2025, unless they can provide a separate screening lane. Though the senator acknowledges that adding a dedicated lane would raise costs for airports, he encourages local authorities to “find creative ways to raise revenues, but not at the expense of the public’s interest.”
In the most recent action, the bill passed through the transportation committee in an 8-4 vote. It will now move forward to the Senate Appropriations Committee for another committee review before going to the Senate floor.
The bill is supported by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, while facing opposition from six airlines, including Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.
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Conventional wisdom is that airport security is the domain of the Federal and not state government. This appears to be another laws/rules for thee, not for me by California. Voters are predominately unwilling to stand up and vote out their extreme representatives. This story among many others makes me smile after choosing to vote with my feet and leave.
I'm sorry but California is moving in the wrong direction here. Requiring that all airports have Clear and that passengers must enroll in the program to use the airport is absolutely bonkers. Who would want to pay an annual fee for that? And that's on top of all the issue Clear has such as the numerous security lapses and the fact that it is often slower than simply walking up to the TSA pre-check line.
I'm in CA and have written to my state legislator to vote no.
Very poor article Joe Cortez! Shame on you!
The proposed bill would prevent services like Clear from using existing pre-security lanes at airports THAT DO NO CURRENTLY HAVE CLEAR; the bill has no effect on exisiting airports using Clear.
A local union of Government Employees supports the bill, I presume because it would create more jobs staffing the separate lanes. I assume a Flight Attendants union is in support of this because a separate lane for Clear would reduce the congestion for Crew in the TSAPreCheck lane and save Crew some time?
Where is your editor/proofreader, Joe Cortez???
A bill currently running through the California Senate would require Clear from operating at commercial airports, citing them as a “source of numerous security violations.”