Twic Enrollment Center News

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration began nationwide implementation of a program that reforms the burdensome process by which mariners and other transportation workers receive required Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC). The TWIC OneVisit program eliminates the requirement that workers make two trips to a TWIC enrollment center to pick up and then activate their TWIC. Under the new, streamlined process, a mariner can apply for a TWIC at an enrollment center and opt to receive the credential by mail.

Maritime Workers Applaud Congressional Passage, Presidential Signature of Coast Guard Bill. On behalf of the American Waterways Operators (AWO) and its 350 member companies, AWO President & CEO Tom Allegretti thanked bipartisan leaders in Congress for passing and President Obama for signing the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act into law late last month. The bill contained several AWO-supported provisions, including legislation that simplifies the process for mariners…

Bill Would Reform Enrollment Process in Flawed TWIC Program. U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) introduced legislation today that would reform the burdensome enrollment process of the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC) program, which provides biometric identification cards to mariners and other transportation workers in order to allow them unescorted access to secure areas of ports, vessels, and other maritime facilities. Under current rules, merchant mariners, port employees, truck drivers, and other workers are required to make repeated visits to a TWIC enrollment center in order to apply for and obtain credentials.

Port and longshore workers, truckers and others who require unescorted access to the are now able to enroll for the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) at a second enrollment site to meet the high demand in the area. More than 200,000 workers are expected to enroll at the local enrollment centers before the compliance deadline. Currently, the program has enrolled approximately 40,000 employees in the region. Nationwide, more than 1.2 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas will apply during the rest of 2008 and through April 2009. Workers at the are able to pre-enroll for TWIC online at www.tsa.gov/twic or the Coast Guard's Homeport site, http://homeport.uscg.mil.

Port workers, longshoremen, truckers and others at the ports of , and will begin enrolling individuals in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program's goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat. Nationwide, more than 1 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas will apply in 2008. M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. , and are among the ports that have begun enrollment in the nationwide program. Ultimately, TSA will establish fixed enrollment centers at 147 ports and will deploy mobile enrollment centers to dozens of other locations as needed.

The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has completed the initial employee enrollment process for the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The federally mandated TWIC requirement created by the Department of Homeland Security is a common identification credential for individuals requiring unescorted access to secure or restricted areas of seaports. The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) opened the TWIC Enrollment Center in Savannah, Ga. in November 2007. Since November, the GPA has enrolled all of its employees in Savannah and Brunswick. “The cooperation of all port users is required to ensure the program’s successful implementation in Georgia,” said GPA’s Executive Director Doug J. Marchand.