CONTACT: Caleb Tiller, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 138
Nicole Hayes, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 133
Washington, D.C. (June 12, 2008) – The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) yesterday presented Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY 11th) with the Founders Award in recognition of her dedication to and actions on behalf of business travelers, including the introduction of the FAST Redress Act of 2007. The award was presented at the 6th Annual NBTA Legislative Summit held this week in Washington, D.C.
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Rep. Clarke (center) with Kevin Maguire (left) and NBTA Executive Director & COO Bill Connors (right). |
NBTA President & CEO Kevin Maguire, CCTE, said: “Congresswoman Clarke has been exceptionally supportive of NBTA and the business travel community as a whole. Her dedication to advancing the industry has made her a champion for corporate travel professionals. I am very pleased that she was chosen to receive this great honor.”
In November 2007 Rep. Clarke introduced the Fair, Accurate, Secure and Timely or FAST Redress Act of 2007 (H.R. 4179), which would take significant steps towards alleviating the burden of those commercial aviation passengers who believe they have been wrongfully placed on a government watch list and consequently remanded to secondary screening or denied boarding. This legislation would set up a dedicated office within Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and streamline the process of appeal for these individuals. This office would then create and share with airlines a “Cleared List” of individuals who have gone through the redress process.
Maguire continued: “NBTA has supported the FAST Redress Act of 2007 since its introduction and will continue to do so until it is enacted. Our members and their travelers have often times been stopped for secondary screening because they were misidentified, causing them not only frustration and grief, but also lost productivity. To effectively manage travel, we are dependant on policies like the one introduced by Congresswoman Clarke, and NBTA is looking forward to its continued work with her office in seeing that this legislation is passed.”
The FAST Redress Act of 2007 has been passed by the Homeland Security Committee and is currently awaiting consideration by the full U.S. House of Representatives.
About NBTA
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel organization. U.S.-based NBTA and its regional subsidiaries – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada and NBTA Mexico – serve more than 3,200 members in 30 nations around the globe. NBTA has 41 U.S. Chapters with more than 5,000 members. NBTA members are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than US$170 billion of global business travel expenditures annually. The association provides industry-leading networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.
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