Lawmaker seeks biometric ID cards for aviation security workers

Frustrated by the lack of progress to control access to sensitive areas at the nation's airports, a House lawmaker plans to introduce a bill after the July Fourth recess that aims to push the Homeland Security Department to act swiftly.

Florida Republican John Mica, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee, said before the break that he would introduce the bill when lawmakers return next week. Mica said the department must issue standards for biometric technology -- which includes facial recognition, iris scans, hand readers and scanned fingerprints -- to help create uniform identification cards for law enforcement officials, pilots, flight attendants and others who work in secure areas.

A Mica spokesman said on Friday that the bill would include a deadline for establishing standards for the advanced technology. "It's still in the formative stages," he said of the legislation.

Although the spokesman declined to provide details about the bill, Mica and subcommittee ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio of Oregon last month announced their intentions to prod the department. They said they have grown aggravated with a Homeland Security official over delays in deploying biometric technology.

House and Senate lawmakers have complained that more than two years after enacting legislation on the issue, low-tech security credentials and various ID cards currently being used to authorize access to sensitive areas could court a terrorist attack.

"Our multibillion-dollar screening regime is defenseless against the terrorist who uses a lost, stolen or forged security badge or law-enforcement-officer credential to walk right past a screening checkpoint," Mica said during the May hearing. Only 11 of 429 U.S. airports -- or less than 3 percent -- have deployed biometrics, an industry executive told Mica's panel.

The current law, which was enacted shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the department "shall recommend to airport operators within six months after the date of enactment commercially available measures to prevent access to secure airports."

Homeland Security's Stewart Verdery, who is in charge of policy and planning for border and transportation security, told Mica's panel that financial constraints have caused the delays. And the department does not plan to adopt a standard for the technology until it completes testing the technology at different airports next year.

"We're trying to make sure we have both the biometric technology in place and also a clear plan for implementation before we charge forward with a one-size-fits-all when we're talking about millions, literally millions, of potential customers," Verdery said.

But Mica and industry executives argued that the testing process is needless and futile. They said the mature technology is proven, and the department would not recommend one biometric over another because airports, as privately owned facilities, would choose their systems.