WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security Tuesday announced it had begun running the names of 400,000 port workers against U.S. terrorist watch-lists, the first stage of an accelerated schedule for the long-awaited federal credential for transportation employees nationwide.
"We've already begun taking the names of port workers ... a population of about 400,000 individuals and running them against the terrorist watch list," Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael Jackson told business leaders in Washington.
Officials said that using the legal authorities of the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration had begun conducting the name-based background checks on workers at major U.S. ports Tuesday, and expected them to be complete by July.
Jackson said the checks would be the first step in a two-stage strategy to launch the so-called Transportation Worker Identity Credential, or TWIC -- a national biometric identity card that will eventually be issued to all 725,000 people with unescorted access to U.S. port facilities.
"It's the terminal facility operators; it's the longshoremen ... the rail employees ... the truckers... It's the whole ball of wax," Jackson said of the second stage.
He said the full program would also cover "a large portion" of the foreign mariners with access to U.S. ports.
The whole process "will require a very, very considerable effort," Jackson warned.
He said the department would "in the next couple of days" publish "the additional rules and procurements necessary fully to implement" the program.
The department aims to be issuing cards for the program -- which will involve full criminal and immigration background checks for anyone requiring credentials -- by the end of the year.
"Our promise to the president is that we will be doing that (issuing cards) this year," Jackson said, calling the move "overdue."
Officials rolling out the announcement at an earlier event said that technology and business processes for the cards had already been tested last year. More than 4,000 of them were issued to staff at 26 locations in six states.
But Jackson said that those cards might need to be replaced with whatever credential the administration eventually fixed on.
"We may have to replace the actual card, but not all the work that went into the card," he said in answer to a question.
In an interview later with United Press International, Jackson said that cardholders would be charged a fee to cover the cost of the background check.
He added that a key issue was the question of redress for those wrongly flagged as a security risk.
"At this larger volume, we're going to have an aggressive redress program that is user-friendly," he said.
When the Transportation Security Administration ran name-based terrorist watch-lists checks on the 2.7 million truckers licensed to haul hazardous materials in the United States, 29 had their licenses revoked as a result of security concerns -- and many more because of a criminal record or because they had once been judged mentally incompetent.
At the time the appeal process for those affected was criticized as slow and non-transparent. One Atlanta trucker fired after being declared a security risk and denied a license was eventually cleared, but not in time to save his job.
Uncertainty has swirled around the TWIC program since it was first mandated. Last week the Transportation Security Administration hurriedly issued an amended solicitation notice for the program. Trade journal CQ Homeland Security reported that the new notice excluded a so-called "identity management system" -- which it described as "arguably the most significant part of the contract involving collection of biometric data and card issuance and revocation."
The journal also reported that a provision in pending appropriation law would direct the Department of Homeland Security to use a group called the Transportation Security Clearinghouse "as the central identity management system for the deployment and operation" of credentialing programs, including TWIC.
The clearinghouse is run by the airport lobbying group the American Association of Airport Executives, and has conducted background checks for other federal security programs involving workers in the commercial and general aviation industries.
Jackson's announcement Tuesday came as the war of words over port security heated up on Capitol Hill.
Democrats unveiled an amendment they hoped to insert in the SAFE Ports Bill scheduled to be marked up Wednesday by the House Homeland Security Committee.
The provision's sponsor, Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told a press conference at the U.S. Capitol that it would require a physical inspection and tamper-proof sealing for all containers headed for the United States.
"They will have three years, the largest ports around the world," to put such a system in place, said Markey. For smaller ports there would be a five-year deadline, and ports could get "a one-year extension within the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security."
Officials said the department currently screened all containers, and physically inspected all those deemed high-risk by the screening process.
Jackson said he had not seen the amendment, but said "in general we're concerned that we not produce legislation that can't actually be implemented in the real world in a reasonable time frame."
At a briefing Tuesday, SAFE Ports Bill sponsor Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the law included measures to track and protect containers en route to the United States, would authorize $2.4 billion in federal funding to enhance security at seaports nationwide, and requires nuclear and radiological detection systems to be installed at all domestic seaports.
