Mica Says He’s ‘Fed Up’ With TSA’s Failure to Explain Card Reader Deployment Delay
This story appears in the July 9 print edition of Transport Topics.
The chairman of the House Transportation Committee said he is “fed up” with the Transportation Security Administration’s failure to explain delays in deploying biometric card readers for Transportation Worker Identification Credential cards at U.S. ports and other secure facilities.
Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said at a June 28 committee hearing that he may subpoena a top TSA official who failed to appear before the committee last month.
“Here we are, almost on the eve of renewal, about five years after issuance [of the TWIC cards], and now we’re going to face again the cost of deploying cards that have become almost a joke with the transportation community,” Mica said. “Many questions remain, and I have not been pleased with the cooperation of the Department of Homeland Security.
“TSA continues to ignore the committee, and I will consult with my colleagues if necessary to subpoena witnesses from TSA to get their response, which I think this committee deserves,” Mica said.
Stephen Sadler, TSA’s assistant administrator, declined to appear because agency officials believe the committee does not have jurisdiction over the TWIC program, a spokeswoman for TSA said.
“TSA has provided information on the TWIC program to committees of jurisdiction,” the spokeswoman said.
TSA announced last month that with many of the five-year TWIC cards soon expiring for truckers and maritime workers, the agency will issue three-year extensions at a reduced price because the biometric card readers have yet to be deployed at most ports.
Until the readers are deployed, TWIC cards generally will be used only for visual inspection, making them essentially a “flash pass” rather than a sophisticated fingerprint verification device.
The TSA spokeswoman said the Coast Guard plans to publish the proposed card-reader rule by the end of this year.
She attributed the delays to a congressional mandate for a pilot test of the readers prior to deployment. TSA reported on the results of the pilot project to Congress earlier this year.
If the rulemaking process goes as planned, readers could be deployed at the highest-risk ports before the three-year TWIC card extension expires, the spokeswoman said.
In addition to questioning the delays, committee member Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) also wondered whether the TWIC program has improved port security.
“[I]t is no understatement to say that the development and implementation of this program has been at best dismal and its record of achievement disappointing,” Larsen said.
He said that, since its inception, the TWIC program has been “beset by a litany of problems.”
“Excessive costs, administrative inefficiencies, technical biometric glitches and confusing or burdensome enrollment requirements routinely surface as common faults expressed by my constituents,” Larsen said.
Rear Adm. Joseph Servidio, assistant commandant for preparedness for the Coast Guard, told the committee that, so far, only about 275 card readers are being used at approximately 75 facilities out of about 2,700 ports nationwide.
Joseph Lawless, director of maritime security at the Massachusetts Port Authority, said delays are creating problems with grant funding deadlines to purchase the readers.
There are concerns that, if the reader requirements change when the proposed rule is issued, federal grants used to deploy those few readers already in place will be wasted, Lawless said.
“Ports with grants were unsure what to do with the money,” Lawless said. “Some reprogrammed the money, and others decided to install the infrastructure without knowing what the final requirements would be.”
Although Lawless said he was glad that TSA is extending the TWIC cards, he is concerned that the agency will not be doing updated background checks on TWIC holders.
“We feel the lack of an additional criminal background check could dilute the security of our facilities,” said Lawless, who testified on behalf of the American Association of Port Authorities.
Meanwhile, a bill that passed the House last month directs the Department of Homeland Security to reform the process for the enrollment, activation, issuance and renewal of the TWIC.
If approved by the Senate and signed by President Obama, the process would require only one visit to an enrollment center, down from the current two visits.
