Hill doubts TSA’s timeline for port identification card program

House Democrats claimed Wednesday that the Transportation Security Administration's estimate on finishing its long delayed rollout of an identification card program for workers at the nation's ports was unrealistic, and characterized the program as "a real problem."

TSA planned to begin issuing new high-tech identification cards, which will store biometric data on workers, to port employees in August 2004. But the agency just started the enrollment process in Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 16. The program, called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program, was established in December 2001 to tighten security at ports by better controlling access to facilities and vessels.

On Wednesday, TSA Administrator Edmund "Kip" Hawley told the House Homeland Security Committee that TSA will issue 750,000 cards. But Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., suggested the 750,000 total was too low, noting that Houston, not one of the nation's larger ports, expects to submit 350,000 applications. "If estimates I'm hearing are correct, you have a real problem on your hands," Thompson said.

Hawley said TSA's business model for issuing the cards allows it to scale up production as much as needed to meet a requirement for more cards. However, he said scaling up would lengthen the timeline to enroll workers and issue the cards. The enrollment period will be extended at larger ports as needed, for example, he said, and more enrollment stations will be set up to accommodate an increase in applications.

Also causing delays is a lack of card readers at the ports. "Key aspects [of the TWIC program] still haven't been fully tested or implemented, [including] biometric access card readers, which won't be implemented for another two years or longer," said Cathy Berrick, director of homeland security and justice at the Government Accountability Office. "Until the program further matures, it's hard to determine whether or not it will be successful."

Card readers on the market are compatible with TWIC, but many don't recognize the biometrics stored in a chip on the TWIC cards or technology that allows the cards to be read from a distance through radio frequency signals. A pilot program to test card readers will begin in early 2008, about a year after the April 2007 deadline in the Security and Accountability For Every (SAFE) Port Act. TSA will begin deploying the readers to ports two years later.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is charged with checking worker credentials with handheld biometric readers. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., questioned how effective that will be. "Sometimes people really look at the card, sometimes they don't look at the card," she said. She noted that she has been required to flash only her government-issued ID card to proceed through security checkpoints.

To explain the delays, Hawley pointed to TWIC guidelines that require the readers to be issued under a separate order, but Thompson and Rep. Norman Dicks, D-Wash., questioned why the two initiatives were not conducted in tandem.

"Why would we not want to get the readers as quickly as possible?" Dicks asked. "This is not rocket science. This seems a major flaw. You are making this too complex." He raised the possibility that legislation could force TSA to get the card readers faster.