WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The Department of Homeland Security's planned biometric ID card for transport workers faces a chorus of skeptics among industry and labor groups who fret that it will be an expensive burden that will provide little security benefit.
For their part, officials say they have already run name-based checks against terrorist and immigration violator databases and cleared 400,000 people working in U.S. ports. An unknown number of names that are possible watch-list hits are awaiting adjudication by the Transportation Security Administration.
The plan to issue the cards to 725,000 truck drivers, longshoremen, airport baggage handlers and others needing unescorted access to transport facilities like ships, ports and runways was mandated by Congress in 2002. Workers will have to give their fingerprints and be checked against criminal, immigration and terrorist databases before they can be issued a card, which will be needed to access transport facilities, and for which they will have to pay $140.
But labor advocates and some industry lobbyists say they are concerned the process -- which bars anyone convicted of a broad list of criminal offences from getting a card, but offers them a chance to ask for waiver if they are not a security risk -- will bog down in a flood of appeals and cases of mistaken identity.
"If the list of offences is not narrowed," AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department General Counsel Larry Willis told United Press International, "the waiver and appeals process could easily become overloaded with individuals who pose no security risk."
He gave as a hypothetical example "someone who wrote a bad check six years ago. Is that person a terrorism security risk?" he asked, saying that was the standard intended in the law.
For their part, officials insist that that they are still drafting the rules and will be drawing on their experience of the background checks they ran on truck-drivers who applied for a special license to haul hazardous materials, or hazmat.
In the summer of 2004 the Transportation Security Administration ran a name-based watch-list check on the 2.7 million people licensed to haul hazmat in the United States.
"A robust redress process is a key component of the Transportation Worker Identity Credential program," Transportation Security Administration Spokesman Darrin Kayser told UPI, adding that the agency had "developed a robust redress process through the hazmat program," which they planned to "leverage ... in defining the Transportation Worker Identity Credential redress process."
But industry sources say the background check program for hazmat drivers has forced a lot of truckers out of the business.
"Many (of our members) have told us they have either gotten out of the business or are thinking about getting out," Dave Osieki, vice-president for safety, security and operations at the American Trucking Associations told UPI.
He said for most trucking firms, hazmat represented a very small percentage of their business, and they were able to get out. "It was a concern for the drivers," he said, "a burden on them, an expense," which had become "an issue of driver retention" for the firms.
He said there were a few firms which specialized in hazmat transportation, but even some of those had dropped the requirement that all their drivers undergo the background check necessary for a hazmat license.
"Good drivers are hard to come by," said Osieki, "If (our members) have them, they don't want to lose them (because they're unwilling to endure the expense and hassle of the background check)."
Advocates are also concerned about the growing proliferation of government-mandated screening and access control programs, saying they risk imposing an unnecessary burden on workers and the businesses that employ them.
Both labor and industry representatives are keen to stress that they support the idea of a security screening process to weed out potential terrorist threats.
"We want to keep terrorists out of these facilities as much, if not more, than anyone," said Willis. "Our guys work there."
"Our members don't mind drivers having to do it once," Osieki said, "but to us it's important that these programs are coordinated," he added.
Osieki said the Transportation Worker Identity Credential, or TWIC, program, come atop other freight transport ID programs -- like the cross-border FAST card that speeds truckers through U.S. and Canadian customs and immigrations or the special endorsement needed before they can haul hazardous materials -- all of which required the same biometric information, photographs and fingerprints, and a check against the same databases.
"It's a waste of time, money and effort," he said of the duplication. "Where is the added security benefit?"
Osieki said the American Trucking Associations members had about 60,000 drivers enrolled in the FAST program, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another element of the Department of Homeland Security. Those drivers, already background-checked, will not have to undergo a fresh name check to get a TWIC, but will still have to present themselves twice at one of 125 issuing stations around the country -- once to apply and again to collect the card -- and will still have to pay $95 for the card.
"We would like to see them folded in together," said Osieki of the programs.
