Transportation Security: TWIC enrollment seeing steady growth as April deadline approaches
Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 3/9/2009
WASHINGTON—Roughly three months after it was reported that there were ongoing issues regarding the implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), it appears that significant progress has been made since that time, according to the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
TWIC is a biometric-based ID to be used by port workers to ensure that individuals who pose a security threat do not gain access to secure areas of U.S. ports. The TWIC program is expected to cover approximately 1.2 million port workers who require unescorted access to ports, ships, and offshore platforms that are currently regulated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.
The TSA announced earlier today that one million port and longshore workers, truckers and other personnel at United States ports have enrolled in the TWIC program. According to the TSA, 1,004,376 port-related workers have enrolled for TWIC, and 767,549 cards have been issued.
This is up from December 8, when 692, 523 were enrolled, and 451,691 cards had been issued
“American ports from coast to coast are more secure today because of the significant progress this program has made,” said Gale Rossides, acting administrator, Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in a statement. “Enrolling 1 million workers in less than 18 months is a testament to the collaborative efforts of TSA and the United States Coast Guard on this important maritime security effort.”
The TSA added that 36 of the 42 Captain of the Port Zones in the U.S. require workers to have a TWIC, and all ports must be in compliance with credential requirements by April 14, 2009. Port security personnel, said the TSA, are trained to ensure workers have valid cards and Coast Guard officials are conducting random compliance inspections at these ports. And the TSA also noted that more than 150 fixed enrollment centers will ultimately vet more than 1.2 million maritime transportation system workers by the April deadline. Along with the fixed sites, the TSA said that more than 450 mobile enrollment sites—that register workers at locations in close proximity to where they work—have been deployed.
And TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis told LM that while the TWIC program is a huge undertaking with roughly 1.2 million workers needing to apply for a TWIC over the last eight months or so, TSA has been pleased with how each phase of compliance has gone to date.
This optimism is a far cry from correspondence between Bennie G. Thompson, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman, and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last December on the progress of TWIC implementation at that time.
In a December letter to Chertoff obtained by LM, Thompson said he was informed that 3,000 TWIC applications have been lost with no record that these enrollees applied for a TWIC card, adding that the application data was overwritten by DHS’ contractor—Lockheed Martin.
Thompson also stated that more than 150 TWIC applicants—at various ports, including Savannah, Jacksonville, Brunswick (Georgia), Wilmington (North Carolina), Boston, and Charleston—that submitted TWIC applications and requests for appeals and waivers have been denied access to their worksites, because DHS did not process their paperwork.
What’s more, Thompson went on to say that DHS’ implementation of TWIC “has been an abysmal failure, explaining that DHS has ignored the guidance of stakeholder including members of Congress, port operators, terminal owners, carriers, barge and tug boat owners, and labor organizations. And because of this, he said that port workers that are willing and able to report to work are unable to gain access to their respective worksites.
The TWIC initiative has experienced various issues and delays throughout 2008. For example, the final compliance date for TWIC was originally to be September 25, 2008, but in May 2008 DHS said it would be pushed back to April 14, 2009. DHS explained that the extension was a result of collaboration with port officials and industry stakeholders that realigns the enrollment period with the original intent of the new rule.
And a hearing on TWIC held by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) in January 2008 cited issues with the TWIC enrollment process that commenced during the fourth quarter of 2007. Among the issues discussed were a relatively low number of cards issued and the original estimate of those port workers needing TWIC cards being revised from 750,000 to one million.
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