Private Security Officer Screening Improvement Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 3012 To amend the Private Security Officer Employment Authorization Act of 2004 to establish a national criminal history background check system and criminal history review program for private security officers. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 10, 2019 Mr. TOOMEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend the Private Security Officer Employment Author- ization Act of 2004 to establish a national criminal his- tory background check system and criminal history re- view program for private security officers. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Private Security Offi- 4 cer Screening Improvement Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 3012 IS (1) There are close to 1,000,000 private secu- 1 rity officers in the United States, both contract and 2 proprietary. Private security officers are considered 3 persons of trust by the public. They are entrusted to 4 safeguard and protect people and property, including 5 nuclear power plants, schools, hospitals, banks, 6 places of worship, living communities, shopping 7 malls, and entertainment venues. 8 (2) The Integrated Automated Fingerprint 9 Identification System of the Federal Bureau of In- 10 vestigation (referred to in this section as the ‘‘FBI’’) 11 maintains fingerprints and criminal history records 12 on more than 70,000,000 individuals. FBI criminal 13 history background checks on private security offi- 14 cers have uncovered serious criminal convictions that 15 did not show up in State and commercial criminal 16 history background checks. Accordingly, it is clearly 17 in the public interest for private security officers and 18 applicants to be subject to FBI criminal history 19 background checks. 20 (3) Congress has worked with the States to 21 make FBI criminal history background checks avail- 22 able to employers of private security officers through 23 the Private Security Officer Employment Authoriza- 24 tion Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 41106) (referred to in 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 3012 IS this section as the ‘‘PSOEAA’’) and statutes enacted 1 by dozens of States in compliance with Public Law 2 92–544. The PSOEAA authorized employers of pri- 3 vate security officers to request FBI criminal history 4 background checks on their officers and applicants 5 through a State agency. However, since the enact- 6 ment of the PSOEAA in 2004, not all States have 7 made FBI criminal history background checks avail- 8 able to employers of private security officers. As a 9 result, there are many private security officers and 10 applicants for which employers are unable to obtain 11 FBI criminal history background checks as author- 12 ized by the PSOEAA. 13 SEC. 3. NATIONAL CRIMINAL HISTORY BACKGROUND 14 CHECK AND CRIMINAL HISTORY REVIEW 15 PROGRAM. 16 The Private Security Officer Employment Authoriza- 17 tion Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 41106) is amended— 18 (1) in subsection (c)— 19 (A) in paragraph (2)(B), by inserting ‘‘or 20 a designated entity’’ after ‘‘a State identifica- 21 tion bureau’’; 22 (B) by redesignating paragraph (5) as 23 paragraph (7); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:16 Dec 14, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 3012 IS (C) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and 1 (4) as paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; 2 (D) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 3 following: 4 ‘‘(3) DESIGNATED ENTITY.—The term ‘des- 5 ignated entity’ means an entity designated by the 6 Attorney General, which may not be a Federal agen- 7 cy, to receive and process requests under subsection 8 (d).’’; and 9 (E) by inserting after paragraph (5), as so 10 redesignated, the following: 11 ‘‘(6) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means a State, 12 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of 13 Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, 14 Guam, and the Trust Territories of the Pacific.’’; 15 and 16 (2) in subsection (d)— 17 (A) in paragraph (1)— 18 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 19 ‘‘the State identification bureau of a par- 20 ticipating State’’ and inserting ‘‘a State 21 identification bureau or a designated enti- 22 ty’’; 23 (ii) in subparagraph (B)(i), by strik- 24 ing ‘‘to the State identification bureau of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 3012 IS the participating State the’’ and inserting 1 ‘‘a’’; 2 (iii) in subparagraph (C)— 3 (I) in the heading— 4 (aa) by striking ‘‘THE 5 STATE’’ and inserting ‘‘A STATE’’; 6 and 7 (bb) by inserting ‘‘OR DES- 8 IGNATED ENTITY’’ after ‘‘BU- 9 REAU’’; 10 (II) in the matter preceding 11 clause (i), by striking ‘‘the State iden- 12 tification bureau of a participating 13 State’’ and inserting ‘‘a State identi- 14 fication bureau or a designated enti- 15 ty’’; and 16 (III) in clause (ii), by inserting 17 ‘‘or designated entity’’ after ‘‘State 18 identification bureau’’; 19 (iv) in subparagraph (D)— 20 (I) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘the 21 State identification bureau’’ and in- 22 serting ‘‘a State identification bureau 23 or a designated entity’’; and 24 (II) in clause (ii)— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 3012 IS (aa) in subclause (I), in the 1 matter preceding item (aa)— 2 (AA) by striking ‘‘a 3 participating’’ and inserting 4 ‘‘employment in a’’; and 5 (BB) by inserting 6 ‘‘identification bureau or a 7 designated entity’’ after ‘‘the 8 State’’; and 9 (bb) in subclause (II)— 10 (AA) by striking ‘‘a 11 participating’’ and inserting 12 ‘‘employment in a’’; and 13 (BB) by inserting 14 ‘‘identification bureau or a 15 designated entity’’ after ‘‘the 16 State’’; and 17 (v) by adding at the end the following: 18 ‘‘(F) STATE CRIMINAL HISTORY CHECK.— 19 A designated entity may, upon request from an 20 authorized employer, complete a check of a 21 State criminal history database. 22 ‘‘(G) DESIGNATED ENTITIES.—The Attor- 23 ney General shall designate, and enter into an 24 agreement with, one or more entities to receive 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 3012 IS and process requests under this subsection.’’; 1 and 2 (B) in paragraph (4), by adding at the end 3 the following: 4 ‘‘(D) FEDERAL PROGRAM COSTS.— 5 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a 6 criminal history record information search 7 submitted through a designated entity in 8 accordance with this subsection, the fees 9 collected by the designated entity shall be 10 set at a level that will ensure the recovery 11 of the full costs of providing all such serv- 12 ices. 13 ‘‘(ii) REQUIREMENT.—The designated 14 entity shall remit the appropriate portion 15 of the fees collected under clause (i) to the 16 Attorney General, which amount is in ac- 17 cordance with the amount published in the 18 Federal Register to be collected for the 19 provision of a criminal history background 20 check by the Federal Bureau of Investiga- 21 tion.’’. 22 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS. 23 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 24 of this Act, the Attorney General shall issue such regula- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 3012 IS tions as may be necessary to carry out the amendments 1 made by this Act. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Dec 13, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3012.IS S3012 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS