Lawmakers, maritime industry frustrated with slow progress on TWIC

Three years ago Congress mandated the creation of a universal ID card for seaport workers, but the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it will be at least another year before federal rules for the program are ready. TSA will issue a “notice of proposed rule-making” in early 2007 for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), according to TSA spokeswoman Amy Von Walter. This is the optimistic version, as Stewart Baker, DHS’s assistant secretary for policy and planning, was more vague, telling the House Armed Services Committee last week that he “can’t say” when the TWIC regulation will be ready.

The TWIC program was originally conceived as a universal, secure card which would allow government officials to verify the identity of transportation workers, in the process preventing fraud and sabotage. The biometric cards were to be distributed to workers at seaports, airports, and other transportation facilities. The latest storm over the Dubai-based company’s port management deal has only served to highlight lawmakers’ growing impatience, shared by industry and port security officials, with DHS’s failure so far to launch TWIC.

The American Association of Port Authorities, and other maritime interested groups, say that a major reason for their frustration is that it is impossible to move ahead with their own credentialing programs without knowing what the federal regulation on TWIC would stipulate.

-read more in Caitlin Harrington’s CQ report (sub. req.)