Biometric Transportation Security Card News

GAO finds it is broken, and now the question is; can it be fixed? Recently, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a scathing report on the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) electronic reader pilot test and on the TWIC program in general. The GAO said that the test of the electronic readers that are intended to largely automate access of credentialed maritime workers into secure areas not only failed, but that test results were so badly gathered that it is impossible to determine exactly where the problems lie and what needs to be corrected.

Experience has clearly shown that the concept that the issuance of high-tech biometric transportation security cards, called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential or TWIC, could achieve these goals was fatally flawed from the beginning. With visions of al Qaeda terrorists lurking on US waterfronts and in the bowls of U.S.-flag vessels, Congress in 2002 included in the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) a requirement that unescorted access to secure areas in U.S.

Senator Coleman (R-MN) introduced the Small Marine Business and Fishing Guide Relief Act of 2008 (S. 3377) to amend title 46, United States Code, to waive the biometric transportation security card requirement for certain small business merchant mariners, and for other purposes.  This bill, if enacted into law, would exempt from the requirement for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) merchant mariners serving on vessels the owner or operator of which is not required to submit a vessel security plan. (HK Law).

Senator Coleman (R-MN) introduced the Small Marine Business and Fishing Guide Relief Act of 2008 (S. 3377) to amend title 46, United States Code, to waive the biometric transportation security card requirement for certain small business merchant mariners, and for other purposes.  This bill, if enacted into law, would exempt from the requirement for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) merchant mariners serving on vessels the owner or operator of which is not required to submit a vessel security plan.  The official text of the bill is not yet available, but an advance copy has been circulated. (HK Law).