Host of problems mar transportation worker card.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: SECURITY BEAT: Homeland Defense Briefs

CONGRESS HAS DRAWN A LINE on the troubled transportation worker identification credential program.

The card's purpose is to ensure that those working in a port or airport facility are not on a terrorist watch list and to verify their identities.

The Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration began work on the card in December 2001, but progress has been slow. To get its hands around the delay, DHS announced in 2005 that it would start with maritime transportation workers only.

The recently passed SAFE Port Act demands that the agency publish the maritime rules by Dec. 31. Whether that happens remains to be seen. DHS has become infamous for missing congressionally mandated deadlines--sometimes by years.

A Government Accountability Office report blamed the delays on poor contract management. The program has cost $90 million so far.

TSA faces further hurdles, it said.

The first is how to enroll an estimated 750,000 port workers who are spread out at 3,500 maritime facilities or aboard 10,800 vessels. The process entails a background check and submitting to a 10-digit fingerprint scan.

The second challenge will be getting the access control technology, including the scanners, to work correctly in the harsh maritime environment.

Lastly, there are issues remaining on how to connect facility computers to a national database.

Operational tests last year highlighted many of these problems. The GAO recommended further testing. "Rapidly moving forward with implementation of the transportation worker identification credential program without...