TWIC ID cards will be ready; readers will not
Sep 21, 2006 3:42 PM
The United States will begin issuing high-security biometric identification cards for port workers as planned at the year-end, but the roll-out of card readers will be postponed to next year, the Department of Homeland Security says.
The second phase of the U.S. Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program, which will extend full background checks to all with unescorted access to port facilities and vessels, will more than double the number of checks. This will be effective from the end of this year.
"We will begin enrollment by the end of the year, and readers and access control will be addressed as we roll-out the TWIC to over 750,000 workers," Lara Uselding, a public affairs manager at the Transportation Security Administration tells Reuters.
The TSA, a unit of DHS, was expected to start processing applications for the TWIC cards between mid-September to mid-October, shipping industry sources told the news service.
The shipping industry also voiced its concern about issuing the cards without a reader, which is needed to process the information on the cards. "We would have preferred TSA to roll out the program when it is good and ready, and not when it is half done," a shipping industry source told Reuters.
Uselding said that procedures for using the card would be laid out in the TWIC rule, which will be issued in the coming weeks.
Some card reader vendors confirmed that they had not received a timetable for the implementation of the card readers and the technology issue remained unresolved.
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