TWIC round-upFlorida congressman asks for a reprieve on compliance

There are many reasons to object to the TWIC program as currently conceived —not the least of which is technical failure — but this one is new on us. Congressman Gus Bilirakis (R-Florida) last week asked TSA to exclude his state from TWIC on the grounds that the complex biometric identification system being used is incompatible with a maritime identification card already issued by Florida authorities. “I understand our system may be even better than the federal system,” Bilirakis told a meeting of the House Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism. “A dual credential-technology system requirement in Florida will be costly, inefficient and will negatively disrupt the progress that has been accomplished in Florida to date.” Chief in Bilirakis’s mind is a looming TSA deadline to select the first ten ports forced to enroll in TWIC. He asked Maurine Fanguy, the TSA’s director of the TWIC card program, whether she could take his state off the list until the technical conflicts were resolved. “We can certainly look into that,” she replied.