Local ports to use new federal IDs

WASHINGTON — Dockworkers in Tacoma and Seattle will be among the first in the country to use new federal identification cards that are meant to help protect the nation's ports from terrorist attacks.

The Transportation Workers Identity Credential (TWIC) ID card is a high-tech document required of any dock or transit worker with unescorted access to secure port areas.

Equipped with a chip, a swipable magnetic strip and tamper-resistant holograms, the new ID card is the first step in a long-awaited plan to better screen port employees and others with secure-area access.

"TWIC is designed to address all facets of the supply chain," said Mike Wasem, spokesman for the Port of Tacoma, which will begin using the cards this week. "Ultimately, it will affect longshoremen, truckers, PR guys, anyone who 'touches' cargo. The PR guy doesn't touch cargo, but he does have access to secure areas."

The program was ordered five years ago as part of homeland-security legislation. But so far, only two ports nationwide have the ID cards. The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees the program, plans to issue the ID cards in 39 additional ports, including Tacoma and Seattle, by the end of 2007 and in 147 ports by next fall.

Although most ports have their own employee-screening and other security measures in place, the new program is a uniform federal measure that will include criminal background checks, FBI terrorist-watchlist screening and biometric fingerprint data on each card.

In a hearing last week, the House Homeland Security Committee criticized the ID cards and the time it was taking to implement the program.

Labeling the ID card program a "failure," the committee focused on security breaches, inefficiencies and the potential impact on workers.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., noted recent examples of security breaches that could undermine the ID cards: A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) contractor's laptop was stolen, and counterfeit ID cards reportedly are being created by organized crime.

Kip Hawley, TSA assistant secretary, said the hard drive of the stolen computer was encrypted in accordance with TSA rules so data could not be compromised.

Hawley also said the cards have tamper-proof security elements such as holograms and biometric fingerprint data that can't be copied.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who has championed port-security legislation, condemned the delays in getting the cards up and running.

"It's very troubling that so many key issues remain more than five years after Congress created the TWIC program," Murray said.

At last week's hearing, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, critiqued another aspect of the program: the card readers meant to verify workers' identities on the TWIC ID cards. Dicks expressed outrage at TSA's projected 2- to 2-½-year timeline before the readers would be ready.

"I'm having a hard time understanding: Why would we not want to get the readers as quickly as possible?" Dicks asked, criticizing the department's decision not to implement cards and readers simultaneously.

Hawley said the department was legislatively mandated to implement the two parts separately and was following rules for buying the technology.

Ramon Ortiz, director of security at the Port of Tacoma, said the TWIC cards add instant additional security, even without the readers, because of increased vetting for each employee.

Ortiz said that until the TWIC readers arrive, however, dockworkers in Tacoma are likely to have two mandatory ID cards: the new TWIC ID cards and their current employee ID cards.

Members of the House committee also voiced concern about the impact of the cards on individual workers. Original estimates were that 750,000 workers nationwide would require a TWIC ID card. Revised estimates are nearly double that number.

In Tacoma alone, an estimated 10,000 workers will need the cards this month, Ortiz said. The burden to workers is not small. Valid for five years, the new cards will cost $132.50 — a charge that will be shouldered by individual employees.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dockworkers up and down the West Coast, has voiced concerns over the high fees for lower-paid workers such as security guards.