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Homeland Security Department agencies on Monday announced changes to plans for implementing a transportation worker identification card program.

Facility and vessel owners and operators will not need to verify biometric data contained in workers' ID cards during the initial phase of the Transportation Worker Identification Credentials effort.

The Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard announced they will hold off indefinitely on requiring that TWIC card readers be installed at points of entry for shipping businesses and at ports. Biometric security companies criticized the decision.

Walter Hamilton, chairman of the International Biometric Industry Association, called a program where biometric data is collected, but not verified, "half of a TWIC."

"Without means to authenticate the card ... anyone could use a TWIC card to gain entry" to ports, he said. "That's not ideal."

In addition to holding off on TWIC card verification, TSA and the Coast Guard said in the Monday announcement that despite requests to extend the 45-day comment period on a draft proposal for implementing the program, they will not allow more time for discussion. The cards are set to be issued later this year.

Under the current plan, transportation and shipping industry workers will have to pay for their own cards, at a cost of about $140.

Card readers could also prove costly when they are required. One analysis conducted by Alabama's state port authority estimates that readers could cost more than $6,000 each. Hamilton said that the cost will likely be closer to $1,000 to $2,000 per machine -- but said several might be needed.

Hamilton said he envisioned verification points for drivers entering ports - some in cars, others in 18-wheeler trucks - that would necessitate one card reader at window-level for a car and one positioned higher for trucks.

"It's not cheap," Hamilton said.

Another problem is the machines' durability. "They can't survive in a maritime-weather-exposed environment," he said.

TSA did not respond to requests for comment.

COMMENTS

• Dawn, Good article and I concur with your comments. Charlie GovExec.com reader Posted January 9, 2007 8:02 PM
• The following statement in the article is misleading: "Biometric security companies criticized the decision." Immtec, Inc. is founder of what NIST calls a "smart wallet" in its Biometrics and Security Systems and Applications Program. Immtec is in support of the decision to not add smart card readers into transporation infrastructure hubs, including ports. Hence, not all biometric security companies are upset with this newer development! There are far better ways to authenticate transportation and maritime workers than with smart cards. Superior biometric solutions are far less expensive, far more respectful of privacy, far more flexible to enhance security and far more durable to endure the elements. It is Immtec's platform that put the maritime ID program on delay in the winter of 2004-05, only for us to lose-out to corruption again as happened with the TWIC beginning in 10/02. Immtec was founded in 1999. Immtec is a member of no trade group, because trade groups tend to breed intellectual property and trade secret theft. Furthermore, trade group memberships are expensive; they have little in the line of redeeming qualities. No reader should assume when the leadership of a trade group is quoted in an article, that they are experts in biometric technologies and familiar with all the biometric technologies available to the federal government. Dawn Posted August 26, 2006 6:10 PM