Security Briefs - Jan. 8-15
The Latest Headlines:
- Canadian Business Leaders Urge Use of 'Smart Cards' at Border
- A.G. Ashcroft Praises Border Program
- Mineta Announces New Security Grants
- TSA: No Collective Bargaining for Screeners
- A.G. Ashcroft Praises Border Program
Canadian Business Leaders Urge Use of 'Smart Cards' at Border
Business leaders in Canada are calling for an identification card that could be swiped at border crossings to allow for speedier passage between the United States and Canada, the National Post reported Wednesday.The Canadian newspaper said that the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents 150 of Canada’s largest companies, said a voluntary North American identity card would allow for the free flow people and goods across the world’s longest undefended border.
The “smart cards” would represent a reinvention of the border, Tom d’Aquino, council president, said.
A.G. Ashcroft Praises Border Program
Attorney General John Ashcroft visited the Mexican border Tuesday to tout the expansion of the high-tech Secure Electronic Network for Travelers’ Rapid Inspection program, the Orange County Register reported.The SENTRI program allows users to quickly pass through border inspection stations after undergoing an extensive background checking and paying a fee, the paper said.
Ashcroft said that efficiency and security are not mutually exclusive, and that is very important to the U.S. economy to keep people and goods moving across the border quickly and easily, the paper reported. Transport Topics
Mineta Announces New Security Grants
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said Tuesday that $148 million in new transportation security grants have been issued.Mineta said in a release that $105 million will go toward port security grants, $28 million for Operation Safe Commerce’s port security pilot program and $15 million for bus security grants.
The port grants will be used for security assessments to enhance cargo and passenger security, and access control. Additional funds will be announced in the near future for port incident training, DOT said.
“These grant programs will help the Transportation Security Administration identify critical infrastructure, provide transit personnel security training, harden our seaports, enhance vehicle tracking and driver protection and increase security throughout the supply chain,” Mineta said.
About $92 million in port security grants have been handed out since last June, the release said. Transport Topics
TSA: No Collective Bargaining for Screeners
The Transportation Security Administration said Jan. 9 that Administrator James Loy had signed an order precluding collective bargaining by TSA airport security screeners."Mandatory collective bargaining is not compatible with the flexibility required to wage the war against terrorism," Loy said in a release. Terrorist threats "can mean changes in work assignments and other conditions of employment that are not compatible with the duty to bargain with labor unions."
Loy's order was in response to petitions filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority by the American Federation of Government Employees, which asked for elections to designate the union as the exclusive representative of TSA security screeners at LaGuardia and Baltimore-Washington International airports. Transport Topics
