Lawmakers to scrutinize troubled port worker ID program
Progress in issuing security cards has been slow and the project has been too expensive, legislators say.
House and Senate lawmakers plan to ratchet up pressure on the Homeland Security Department to improve security at the nation's ports through a series of public hearings this month.
In particular, lawmakers say the department's progress in issuing security cards to port workers has been lacking and the program -- which the department says has cost $91 million -- has been too expensive.
And the department missed the July deadline, set by a maritime security law enacted a year ago, to begin issuing the transportation worker identification credential to workers at the 10 busiest U.S. ports.
To get a transportation worker ID card, workers have to undergo immigration, criminal and terrorist screening checks, and give a fingerprint for biometric identification.
Faced with three congressional hearings this month, the department announced Wednesday it will begin issuing cards Oct. 16 at the Port of Wilmington in Delaware. In November, the department plans to roll out the card program at 11 other ports.
"TWIC is one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems and has a lot of moving pieces. We are now seeing those pieces come together," said Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration, which manages the program.
But the TSA announcement drew immediate criticism from one key Democrat.
"If this list [of ports] was truly based on risk, the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York and New Jersey would have been included," House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in an interview. "This is not the direction that Congress gave to the department. While security of these ports is critical, many of the largest and the busiest are still unsecure."
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing Thursday to examine how the department is complying with maritime security laws, including the SAFE Port Act enacted a year ago.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a member of the committee, said the program has been "stuck in neutral" for years.
"Six years and nearly $100 million after 9/11, only 1,700 men and women are working in our ports with functioning cards," Launtenberg said. "That's nearly $60,000 a card."
Thompson's panel plans a hearing Oct. 11 to examine the department's compliance with the SAFE Port Act. The chairman said another hearing will be held this month to examine the transportation worker ID program, including plans for installing card readers at major ports and creating a redress process to allow workers to correct mistakes if they are wrongly denied cards.
Under the law, the department is required to begin issuing ID cards at the nation's 40 top ports by Jan. 1 -- another deadline that is likely to be missed.
"Your department has had five years to plan," Thompson wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday. "The committee looks forward to a detailed accounting of the TWIC program to date and a detailed presentation of the department's future plans for the program."
Labor officials are also worried the department might disqualify some workers for past or petty crimes that are unrelated to terrorism.
"We have a lot of concerns still about how this is going to work out," said Larry Willis, general counsel for the Transportation Trades Department at the AFL-CIO, which represents port workers across the country.
"It's going to require a great deal of oversight from Congress to make sure that it focuses on the original purpose, [which is] to prevent those who have a terrorist intent from entering our ports," Willis added.
In coming months, the department plans to begin testing card-reading devices at five ports, including the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Calif., New York and New Jersey, the TSA spokesman said. A limited number of workers at those ports will get transportation worker ID cards as part of the test program.
The lack of card readers at other ports is viewed by critics as a major security problem. The TSA spokesman downplayed the criticism, saying port security grants, efforts of the Coast Guard "and other DHS agency initiatives are also critical components of port security."