§469 — Title 6 Domestic Security | U.S. Code

§469 Fees for credentialing and background investigations in transportation

Title 6 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - HOMELAND SECURITY ORGANIZATION › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER VIII— - COORDINATION WITH NON-FEDERAL ENTITIES; INSPECTOR GENERAL; UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE; COAST GUARD; GENERAL PROVISIONS › Part Part H— - Miscellaneous Provisions › § 469

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Starting in fiscal year 2004 and after, the Secretary of Homeland Security must charge reasonable fees for giving transportation credentials and doing background checks. The fees together cannot be more than the Department’s costs. Each fee must match the cost of the specific service. Money from the fees can only be used to pay for things like criminal history checks, checking law enforcement and commercial databases and other government records, handling waiver requests and appeals, and other costs tied to giving the credential or doing the background check. Collected fees can only pay those costs and stay available until they are spent. The Secretary must also set up a process to make sure a noncitizen applying for recurrent aircraft training is properly identified and has not become a risk since any earlier threat check. If the Secretary finds the person is now a risk, the trainer must be told right away and must not start or must stop the training. The Secretary may charge the same kind of reasonable fees for these checks on noncitizens, and those fees will be published in the Federal Register.

Title 6, §469

Domestic Security — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)For fiscal year 2004 and thereafter, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall charge reasonable fees for providing credentialing and background investigations in the field of transportation: Provided, That the establishment and collection of fees shall be subject to the following requirements:

(1)such fees, in the aggregate, shall not exceed the costs incurred by the Department of Homeland Security associated with providing the credential or performing the background record checks;

(2)the Secretary shall charge fees in amounts that are reasonably related to the costs of providing services in connection with the activity or item for which the fee is charged;

(3)a fee may not be collected except to the extent such fee will be expended to pay for the costs of conducting or obtaining a criminal history record check and a review of available law enforcement databases and commercial databases and records of other governmental and international agencies; reviewing and adjudicating requests for waiver and appeals of agency decisions with respect to providing the credential, performing the background record check, and denying requests for waiver and appeals; and any other costs related to providing the credential or performing the background record check; and

(4)any fee collected shall be available for expenditure only to pay the costs incurred in providing services in connection with the activity or item for which the fee is charged and shall remain available until expended.

(b)(1)Notwithstanding section 44939(e) of title 49, the Secretary shall establish a process to ensure that an alien (as defined in section 101(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(3)) applying for recurrent training in the operation of any aircraft is properly identified and has not, since the time of any prior threat assessment conducted pursuant to section 44939(a) of such title, become a risk to aviation or national security.

(2)If the Secretary determines, in carrying out the process established under paragraph (1), that an alien is a present risk to aviation or national security, the Secretary shall immediately notify the person providing the training of the determination and that person shall not provide the training or if such training has commenced that person shall immediately terminate the training.

(3)The Secretary may charge reasonable fees under subsection (a) for providing credentialing and background investigations for aliens in connection with the process for recurrent training established under paragraph (1). Such fees shall be promulgated by notice in the Federal Register.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2004, and not as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which comprises this chapter.

Amendments

2008—Pub. L. 110–329 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a), inserted heading, and added subsec. (b).