Clear lets people skip the line at the airport. California lawmakers want to change it

Clear is a service that lets people skip the security line at airports with nothing but a biometric scan and $189. Some California lawmakers want to make changes to it in the state, saying it separates travelers into haves and have-nots.

Clear is a service that lets people skip the security line at airports with nothing but a biometric scan and $189. Some California lawmakers want to make changes to it in the state, saying it separates travelers into haves and have-nots. California lawmakers voted 8-4 to move a bill out of the Senate Transportation Committee that would create a moratorium on Clear’s expansion at state airports. The bill has to be approved by the full California Senate and Assembly and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to become law. Clear, a publicly-traded security company, lets members jump the line at airports, sports, concerts and other venues. For $189 a year, Clear members can verify their identity at an airport kiosk using their biometric data, such as a face scan or fingerprint, without having to show their ID to a Transportation Security Administration agent. Once a traveler’s identity has been verified, the traveler is escorted by a Clear employee right to the front of a TSA security line. Line-skipping has created frustration and a feeling of unfairness among some other travelers who don’t have access to or can’t afford the price of the Clear membership. (The TSA’s PreCheck program, which is run by the government agency, costs $78 over five years.) “When it comes to making one’s way through airport security, the quality of that experience shouldn’t be contingent on a traveler’s income or willingness to pay,” Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat who introduced the bill, said in a statement to CNN. Travelers who are not enrolled in Clear are “subject to the indignity of being shunted aside to make way for those who do,” Newman said. “This is inequitable, especially in light of the fact that it’s their tax dollars which fund airport security services in the first place.”