IMSecure

Problems and successes as TWIC Implementation Begins at Several US ports.

Torry Shealy

December 5, 2008

Several ports across the country are now requiring Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) for workers who need to enter the facilities. The port regions where TWICs are being checked are Boston, MA, Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, Long Island Sound, NY, Buffalo, NY, Duluth, MN, and Detroit, Lake Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, MI, and Savannah, GA. Workers nationwide will need to obtain TWICs by April 15, 2009. While there have been many problems with the TWIC program there have been some successes and benefits as well.

One of the biggest problems highlighted this past week is the loss of 3,000 applications being lost by the contractor, Lockheed Martin by overwriting the application data.[i] In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Congressman Bernie Thompson (D-MS) raised issue with the lost applications. Thompson, who is Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote that the implementation of the TWIC program “has been an abysmal failure,” stating “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.”[ii]

In July of 2008, the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee’s (NMSAC) TWIC Working Group published a report with several questions and concerns over the TWIC program. One question raised was how rail and utility workers would be checked as entering port facilities. Another question was why TWICs are not accepted as a federal identification card at airports.[iii]

There are also technical issues that were brought up by the NMSAC report. Problems with fingerprinting seem to be on