Stockton port set to begin TWIC enrollment

Stockton port set to begin TWIC enrollment The Port of Stockton on Wednesday will become the final West Coast port to begin signing up local port workers for the federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential.
   The inland California port, located on the Sacramento River about 70 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, also becomes the final continental United States port to begin enrollment for the Department of Homeland Security program.
   Established by Congress in 2002 through the Maritime Transportation Security Act, the DHS program requires that all individuals requiring unescorted access to U.S. ports and port facilities have a TWIC identification card. While a port-wide access system of readers utilizing the cards is likely to be more than a year away, workers have 90 days from the start of enrollment to apply for the credential. To obtain the TWIC identification card, workers must pay a $132 application fee, be fingerprinted, and pass a federal background security check.
   The DHS, through the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, announced the implementation of the TWIC program in January 2007 and in mid-October, 2007, began a phased enrollment at different locations throughout the nation. To date, 144 ports have begun enrollment of workers in the plan and the TSA expects to have all 147 ports included in the program begin enrollment by the end of September. The final ports to begin enrollment are the three Pacific Island ports of American Samoa, Guam and Saipan.
   In March, DHS moved the final compliance date for workers to obtain the TWIC card to April 15, 2009. Operators of maritime and other facilities falling under the TWIC guidelines must have access controls in place to read the cards by the same date.
   The DHS originally estimated that about 1 million workers were expected to apply for TWIC by the end of 2008. However, Coast Guard estimates suggest that the actual number of workers who will need to have a TWIC card could be as high as 1.5 million.
   According to current TSA tallies, more than 431,000 workers across the nation have enrolled for the TWIC credential. An American Shipper analysis last month, 'TWIC card delivery lagging behind applications,' found that despite the pace of applications for the TWIC cards remaining steady through the end of July, less than 50 percent of the workers who have applied for the TWIC card at most ports have actually received them.