The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued an update to its status report on the implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The TWIC Dashboard shows that (as of 31 October) 617,586 maritime workers have enrolled for a TWIC and that 405,699 cards have been activated.
On Oct. 21, the government facility that houses the TWIC system experienced a building-wide power outage. Though power was quickly restored, the part of the system that facilitates card activations was affected. TWIC program enrollment and pre-enrollments are still available nationwide, and TSA encourages workers to enroll for their TWICs. While TSA worked to resolve the issue, workers nationwide were not able to activate their cards until Nov. 3.
By the week of Nov. 10, activation appointments will be available for workers at ports going into compliance Nov. 28 and Dec. 1. Activations for all other ports will be available nationwide later in November. As a result of rescheduling activations, the compliance date for workers located in the Captain of the Port Zones Buffalo, Detroit, Lake Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie and Duluth has been moved from Oct. 31 to Dec. 1, 2008. TWIC program enrollment and pre-enrollment are still available nationwide and TSA encourages workers requiring a TWIC to enroll as soon as possible.
(Source: Holland & Knight)