U.S. House bill covers Florida port IDs

U.S. House bill covers Florida port IDs The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security that includes an amendment calling for DHS to integrate Florida's port identification system into the long-delayed federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).
   Tampa Democrat Kathy Castor introduced an amendment that directs the secretary of Homeland Security to work with the State of Florida to resolve differences between TWIC and existing access control credentials developed for Florida.
   Florida was well on its way to implementing its Florida Uniform Port Access Credential (FUPAC), which would allow truckers to use a single port ID to access any Florida port, until a final rule on TWIC issued by the DHS in January specifically stated that state-issued IDs planned by Florida would not be interchangeable with future TWIC credentials. That stopped the deployment of FUPAC in its tracks.
   But the full House Wednesday approved the DHS funding bill with the Castor amendment, putting the fate of FUPAC into the hands of the Senate and a future conference committee dealing with overall DHS appropriations.