TWIC enrollment at nation’s ports off to slow start

TWIC enrollment at nationÆs ports off to slow start The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that despite federal workers processing more than 2,000 applications a day, less than one in 10 maritime workers have applied for federal security credentials in the first 100 days of sign-ups.
   Of those that have applied for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, more than four out every 100 applicants being rejected, DHS statistics show.
   Established by Congress in 2002 through the Maritime Transportation Security Act, the TWIC is required for workers seeking unescorted entry into the nation's ports. Workers must apply for the federal credential, receive a thorough federal background check, be cleared by DHS and display a federally issued TWIC card when entering port facilities. Workers are required to pay just over $132 for the card.
   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 began a phased enrollment at different locations throughout the nation. More than 40 ports have already begun enrollment under the DHS schedule, which will see all 105 ports included in the program begin enrollment by the end of September.
   Under DHS rules, local officials have 90 days from the start of the announced TWIC enrollment date to implement the credential as an access control device at their respective facilities.
   If the DHS continues as planned, all of the covered ports will be using the TWIC card as an access control by the end of 2008. However, the DHS has yet to announce final rules on TWIC card readers or an implementation schedule for the readers.
   According to federal officials, 69,000 applications have been received for a TWIC card, representing 9.2 percent of the estimated 750,000 workers — including longshoremen, truckers, port employees and others — that will be required to have them when the cards become mandatory for access by the end of the year.
   More recent estimates by the Coast Guard suggest the actual number of workers who will need to have a TWIC card could be as high as 1.5 million. For example, initial estimates at the Port of Boca Raton, Fla., indicated that only 6,000 workers would need to obtain a TWIC card. That number has since risen to nearly 60,000, according to the Coast Guard.
   Of the 69,000 applications received, the DHS has processed about 14,000 and issued an active TWIC card to the applicant.
   Of these processed applications, about 900 have been rejected, with about one-third of the denials being reversed on appeal by the applicant. To date, about 570 applicants, or 4.5 percent of those processed, have been denied a card.
   At a Jan. 23 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing on the TWIC program, Maryland's Transportation Secretary John Porcari told the panel that implementation of the TWIC program at the Port of Baltimore has been slow.
   'This can be attributed to any number of issues,' he said in his written testimony, 'cost of the card, payment arrangements by public and private institutions, and reluctance of individuals because of concerns about disqualifying background criteria.'
   Porcari also told the panel that several unanswered policy questions remain, including:
   ' How to address temporary workers requiring access to the ports.
   ' Drivers making deliveries to port facilities.
   ' Workers on cruise ships.
   ' How TWIC applies to private terminals.
   ' What actually necessitates authorized access to a port.
   Applications are being accepted at the majority of West Coast ports, including Tacoma, Oakland, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and the various Hawaiian ports. The ports of San Diego, Guam and Richmond are expected to start enrollment by the end of March. The California ports of Benicia, Port Hueneme, Sacramento and San Francisco, along with Coos Bay in Oregon, Longview and Pasco in Washington, and all the Alaskan ports, are expected to begin enrollment between April and June. The third quarter of 2008 will see the last ports on the DHS schedule begin TWIC enrollment, with Eureka and Stockton in California joining the list along with Vancouver in Washington.
   Last year, a study commissioned by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles found that up to 22 percent of the nearly 17,000 local drayage fleet drivers, or about 3,400 drivers, would not apply for a TWIC card, and thus be ineligible to enter port facilities when the card becomes mandatory. The study also found that another 20 percent of the drivers were uncertain if they would apply for the card.
   According to academic and port-sponsored studies, drayage drivers in the Southern California ports are largely Hispanic, with a large percentage being recent legal immigrants. Most studies of the drayage fleet accept that some of the drivers would not pass a TWIC background check due to immigration status, though the number of illegal immigrant drivers has never been accurately quantified. Estimates have ranged from 5 percent to more than 30 percent depending on the study. ' Keith Higginbotham