WASHINGTON¡ªThe Transportation Security Association said this week that all 149 Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) fixed enrollment sites ready for worker registration for port and longshore workers, truckers and other staffers that require access at domestic ports.
TWIC is a biometric-based ID to be used by port workers to ensure that individuals who pose a security threat do not gain access to secure areas of U.S. ports. The TWIC program is expected to cover approximately 1.2 million workers who require unescorted access to ports, ships, and offshore platforms that are currently regulated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act.
TSA added that along with the 149 fixed sites, more than 200 mobile enrollment sites to register workers at their employment locales are in use.
The final compliance date for TWIC was originally slated to be September 25, but last May the Department of Homeland Security pushed it back to April 15, 2009. DHS said at the time that the extension was a result of collaboration with port officials and industry stakeholders, and it realigns the enrollment period with the original intent of the new rule.
And workers at select ports, said the TSA, are required to have a TWIC card by next month. It also noted that compliance will be phased in by Captain of the Port Zones between October 15,2008 and April 15, 2009¡ªat which point all ports must be in compliance and all workers requiring unescorted access to secure areas of a port must have a TWIC card.
According to the TSA Web site, 522,289 port workers and truckers are pre-enrolled, 485,788 are enrolled, and 306,577 cards have been issued. This represents an improvement from May 2, when 75,349 TWIC cards had been issued and 250,678 people had enrolled to receive the card.
In May, when the compliance date was pushed back, industry experts told LM that a lot ground needed to be covered in order for the TSA to meet its TWIC registration and compliance deadlines.
Unisys Director of Port Security and Cargo Ted Langhoff told LM that while the number of activated TWIC cards is up substantially since May 2008, the real issue for any given port or port facility is the saturation level of workers such as port personnel, longshoreman, truck drivers, etc. who require TWIC.
¡°If the goal is to enroll and activate 1- 1.5 million TWIC cards and you currently have 300,000 deployed, there is still 70 percent to 80 percent who need the card, but lack it,¡± said Langhoff. ¡°Hence, everyone must keep in mind that there is more work to be done.¡±
In a May interview, Langhoff noted that if TWIC enrollment did not pick up, US ports were likely to ¡°have some serious operational issues, as well as slow down anticipated progress for field testing.¡±
Also in May, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson blasted DHS about problems with the TWIC helpdesk, which is the link between TSA and the workers affected by the program. In a letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Thompson wrote that there were delays in calls handled by the helpdesk, resulting in workers not being able to receive TWIC-related information.
The improvement in TWIC registration turnout since April seems to indicate that things are on the right track after some bumps in the road, according to Albert Saphir, president of ABS Consulting in Marietta, Ga.
¡°It seems like TWIC [compliance and registration] is business as usual, and things are moving along,¡± said Saphir. ¡°The sites are up and running, and I have not heard of any dramatic [miscues] from anyone closely involved with it. There are those that still may not like it, but that is water under the bridge. When we get closer to the deadline, people will be in a better decision to say they have everyone on board or that they are missing a huge portion of what is needed.¡±
ATA supports TWIC
At a hearing held by the Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Terrorism on ¡°Transportation Worker Identification Credential: A Status Update,¡± a ranking member of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) requested that TWIC be used as the single, universally accepted security credential for transportation workers that pre-empts all other security and access programs.
¡°The trucking industry believes that TWIC should serve not only as the one STA (security threat assessment but also as a uniform, nationwide secure access control credential,¡± said Philip L. Byrd Sr., president and CEO of Bulldog Hiway Express, on behalf of the ATA. ¡°This means that the states and thousands of local jurisdictions should not be allowed, without demonstrating some compelling need, to require additional security checks and/or credentials that have a federally-issued TWIC.¡±
