TSA TESTING ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES

TSA TESTING ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES    A U.S. Transportation Security Administration official said the agency is examining methods to allow it more power to enforce the “known shipper” program.
   One such method, the official said, may use swipe card systems used by forwarders and carriers to enter a database of “known” and “unknown” shippers.
   The TSA said it is examining a number of systems, with the goal of providing government agencies with information about shippers and their shipments prior to departure, and to monitor, “on a shipment-by-shipment basis, a particular shipment by a particular shipper,” the official said.
   Air carriers and forwarders have expressed disapproval with the known shipper emergency amendments issued after Sept. 11. The carriers and forwarders have said the emergency amendments place the burden of security enforcement on them.
   With such a system, the TSA official said, the government could either issue a certification number for the shipment prior to its departure, or halt the shipment.
   “This is just one type of system the TSA is looking at,” the official said. This system, and others like it, would “take the determining factor away from industry and put it into the hands of the government,” the official said.
   The TSA official said there is no timelines for the database systems under consideration.