Delays in deploying biometrics aggravate key lawmakers

Two key lawmakers plan to schedule after Memorial Day a debate on legislation that would mandate advanced technology for controlling access to secure areas at airports.

"We're going to change the law," a visibly frustrated John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee, said during a Wednesday hearing on the Homeland Security Department's progress in deploying biometric technologies such as facial recognition to improve aviation security. "We're going to direct you to do something."

Mica and panel ranking member Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said they would introduce legislation to change a law enacted more than two years ago because they have grown aggravated with a Homeland Security official's answers to repeated questions about delays in using the technology.

"I'm surprised you've been around as long as you have," Mica told Stewart Verdery, who is in charge of policy and planning for border and transportation security.

Verdery responded to the lawmaker's criticisms by saying the department is moving as rapidly as it can within its financial restrictions. But his answer did not satisfy Mica or DeFazio. "I think all of us can agree we're not going to get the security we want on the cheap," DeFazio said.

Other lawmakers on the panel also expressed frustration with the lack of a plan to deploy the technology more than two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"The low-tech security credentials that are currently being used to authorize access to the most sensitive areas of our aviation system could be courting disaster," Mica said.

The department is testing different biometrics technologies, such as scanned fingerprints, facial recognition and iris scans, at 20 airports, and officials are not expected to adopt a standard for the technology until the evaluations are finished next year.

Industry executives testifying along side government officials said the testing process is unnecessary because officials have said the department will not recommend one biometric over another. Airports, which are privately owned, could choose among proven systems. And they said airports are delaying a decision to deploy biometrics until the department completes the testing.

Verdery said the evaluations will help the department draft a plan to incorporate biometrics into various security programs, such as identification cards for transportation workers and a registered travel program for frequent business travelers at different airport facilities.

Mica dismissed the necessity of testing technologies that already have been proven mature, and he urged the department to move quickly. "Adopt something," he demanded. "I promise everything else will fall into place."

The General Accounting Office, which during the hearing issued a study on the challenges of biometrics technology, cautioned that a decision to use biometrics should come after officials have considered the cost benefit, privacy concerns and uses of the technology.