# Plain Language Summary: Fly Safe and Healthy Act of 2021

This bill creates a temporary program to screen airline passengers and airport workers for fevers as a COVID-19 safety measure. The Transportation Security Administration would run a 120-day pilot program at selected airports across the country—choosing airports of different sizes to test how the system works in various conditions. Anyone entering the secure area of an airport, including passengers, crew members, and airport employees, would have their temperature checked. If someone registers a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, they'd get a secondary medical screening from a healthcare professional. If they still show a fever after that screening, they wouldn't be allowed into the secure area of the airport.

The bill includes several protections for people affected by these temperature checks. Airlines would have to let passengers reschedule or cancel their flights for free if they're blocked from flying due to a fever. The program also requires safeguards for privacy, accommodations for people with disabilities or religious practices, and procedures to exempt people who have fevers from other causes unrelated to COVID-19. Airport and airline employees who are blocked from working due to a fever would be handled according to their employer's normal leave policies. All temperature-checking equipment must be legally approved devices, and staff running the program would need training before it starts.

After the 120-day pilot program ends, federal health and transportation officials would review the results and decide whether to continue temperature checks at airports for the remainder of the COVID-19 emergency. The bill also requires airlines to notify passengers before they travel about safe flying practices during the pandemic and to warn them that temperature checks may happen at their airport.

Fly Safe and Healthy Act of 2021

Fly Safe and Healthy Act of 2021 This bill directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a 120-day pilot program to conduct temperature checks for domestic and international passengers, individuals accompanying those passengers, crew members, and other individuals who pass through airports and airport security screening locations. In developing the pilot program, the TSA must address certain policies and procedures, including (1) accommodating individuals with disabilities or observing certain religious practices, and (2) exempting individuals who may have a fever unrelated to COVID-19 (i.e. coronavirus disease 2019). The pilot program must ensure airlines allow passengers who are prohibited from flying due to a fever or a secondary medical screening to reschedule or cancel a flight at no cost. The TSA must, within 90 days after the completion of the pilot program, create a policy for deploying a temperature check program at airports and airport security screening locations through the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Department of Transportation must revise its regulations to require the inclusion of certain information about traveling in the passenger notification system during the COVID-19 public health emergency, including (1) a message discouraging any individual who has a fever from traveling in air transportation, and (2) a notification that each passenger and any individual accompanying a passenger into the sterile area of the airport will undergo a temperature check if the pilot program established under this bill is in effect in that airport.