Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2008
Floor Speech
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AMENDMENT NO. 8 OFFERED BY MS. ZOE LOFGREN OF CALIFORNIA
The Acting CHAIRMAN. It is now in order to consider amendment No. 8 printed in House Report 110-604.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Part B amendment No. 8 offered by Ms. Zoe Lofgren of California:
At the end of title VII add the following:
SEC. __. USE OF SECONDARY AUTHENTICATION FOR TRANSPORTATION SECURITY CARDS.
The Secretary of Homeland Security may use a secondary authentication system for individuals applying for transportation security cards when fingerprints are not able to be taken or read to enhance transportation security.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 1126, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Zoe Lofgren) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
My amendment is a simple one. It allows the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to use a secondary authentication system to verify the identity of individuals who are applying for transportation worker identification credentials when those individuals have failed in their biometric verification due to the quality of their fingerprints.
Since this is the Department of Homeland Security, these credentials are called TWICs. And it is necessary currently, in the bill and under law, to have your fingerprints taken to enroll to get this TWIC. However, and this is very interesting, Stanford University has done the research. It turns out that about 5 percent of the population is unable to have their fingerprints taken. Now the reasons for this can be many; genetics, age, there is an ethnicity component, illness, hard labor. And when that happens, what that means is that individuals who would otherwise need the card will not be able to get the card unless this amendment is adopted.
I'll give you an example of an individual who has been impacted. George Thomas of Houston, Texas. Mr. Thomas is 85 years old and he is the president of Higman Marine Services. Higman Marine has been in the inland towing business since 1917. When Mr. Thomas applied for his TWIC card, he was told that his skin was too thin to have his fingerprints read and to come back in a couple of months to apply again. Well, what happens to Mr. Thomas, his company, and all his employees? What happens to his business without the president able to comply with TWIC requirements through no fault of his own?
The TWIC procedure already requires TSA to send pertinent parts of the enrollment record to the FBI as well as within the Department of Homeland Security so that appropriate terrorist threat, criminal history and immigration checks can be performed. This amendment authorizes the Secretary of DHS to perform a secondary check if a person's prints cannot be read instead of telling them to come back in a couple of months. This would mean an additional check of the name, but in the future, when the technology has been accepted for broad use, it could also include the use of other biometrics, such as iris, facial or retina scans, voice recognition and the like. It merely gives discretion to the Secretary to either do the name check, or use alternative biometrics.
The point of this amendment is to enhance security, but also to allow workers who are applying for TWIC to avoid being rejected unfairly.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment as well as the underlying bill. I would like to thank the chairman, Mr. Oberstar, and also Mr. Cummings for their wonderful work on this bill.
Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Madam Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to control the time in opposition although I will not oppose the amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the gentleman from Ohio is recognized for 5 minutes.
There was no objection.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. Madam Chairman, we're prepared to accept this amendment, although I must say we have concerns about the overall effect
the language will have on the requirements under the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program and port security levels in general.
As we all know, and the committee has received voluminous testimony, TWIC readers will not be available for some time. However, in my opinion, we should not relax identification requirements once the readers are in place in our Nation's ports. The evidence at the committee is that we're not dealing with an unknown universe of individuals, we're dealing with a universe anywhere from 750,000 to 1.5 million people who will eventually come and require a TWIC card.
I look forward to working with Representative Zoe Lofgren and commend her on behalf of this 85-year-old gentleman, and others, for bringing this matter to our attention. I look forward to working with Chairman Oberstar and Chairman Cummings and Representative Zoe Lofgren in the conference to perhaps tweak the TWIC language and make sure that we're not saying that, in fact, the alternative identification measures are biometric, and they're not saying that we're going to use someone's driver's license as a substitute for those procedures.
I look forward to the conference, and would be happy to yield to the chairman for his observations on the amendment.
Mr. OBERSTAR. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I share those concerns.
Lockheed Martin, which has the contractor responsibility for issuance of TWIC cards, has reported that fingerprint rejection rate due to poor print quality has been in the range of 2 percent. If you happen to be one of those 2 percent, then you really have a problem. And so that requires those who are rejected to keep coming back to an enrollment center. And the amendment would alleviate mariners from having to make several trips.
I remember myself, when I was working my way through college, I was working at a concrete block factory. I eventually wore out gloves and I said I can't afford any more gloves, so I just moved the concrete blocks with my hands until eventually I had such thick calluses I had no fingerprint whatever, no markings on any of my fingers. It took months afterwards, back in college, to shed those calluses. So I can imagine workers on the docks and all having similar problems. And I think this relief for mariners will be very, very beneficial.
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. I would ask the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee if he has any observations.
Mr. CUMMINGS. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I support this amendment, also.
Under section 7-105 of title 46, United States Code, the Department of Homeland Security is required to issue a biometric credential to individuals who are authorized to have unescorted access to secure areas, vessels and facilities. And some people are unable to accomplish that. I was just talking to my aid, who said that she went to see the rollout and they didn't pick up her fingerprints, which was a bad day for them. And so I think we have to address this.
We will work to ensure that this amendment would not alter the standards in which a TWIC is issued in any way; however, we need to provide options for individuals whose fingerprints, like my aid's, cannot be used to authenticate the cards.
I strongly support the amendment, and we will tweak the TWIC. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. LaTOURETTE. I thank the chairman and reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. At this point, I would also like to thank Chairman Thompson of the Homeland Security Committee for his hard work on this bill.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment offered by Representative Zoe Lofgren. As you know, in order to obtain a TWIC, a port worker must be fingerprinted. The problem is that it's not always possible to get an image of the person's fingerprint, as has been mentioned a few minutes ago. From excessive sweating to dry skin, all of that can impede the capture of a useable fingerprint. Dry skin is a common occurrence, age, genetics, disease can also cause dry skin. We need to address this.
As you know, the TSA is supposed to issue credentials to at least 850,000 workers by the end of September. Because of these limitations, we need to have a plan, TSA needs to have a plan, and this is why this amendment is important. A person's skin should not prevent them from getting credentialed for a job that they need. I urge support of this amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Who seeks time?
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I would reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LATOURETTE. I would indicate to the gentlelady that if you're prepared to close, I will yield back when you're done.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Before I yield back, let me just note that I have no motivation to weaken the security of the----
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The gentlewoman will suspend.
The Chair would note that the gentlewoman from California has the right to close.
Mr. LATOURETTE. Then I am happy to yield back the balance of my time.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Because the gentleman is not managing time in opposition, the proponent has the right to close.
Mr. LATOURETTE. I just want to be clear as we move forward, Madam Chairman. This has happened a couple of times. And I am not questioning the ruling of the Chair, but a couple of times, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Oberstar, has risen to claim time in opposition without being opposed to the amendment and has claimed the right to close, and I just want to make sure we're all squared away.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The assertions of a Member from the floor are not rulings.
Mr. LATOURETTE. No. You're doing a great job and making great rulings. I just want to be clear as we move forward, because we have about six more amendments. It is my understanding that the chairman closed because he was defending the position of the committee, which I'm doing. If that's not the ruling of the Chair, I'm happy to live with the ruling of the excellent Chair, but I just want to make sure we're squared away.
But in the meantime, I'm yielding back my time.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Madam Chairman, I will just note there is not much of a closing. We are in agreement on this amendment. I appreciate the support. I look forward to working further on this.
Certainly, we don't want to weaken our security, but we don't want hardworking people who just can't get their fingerprints taken to be put out of a job. So we are of one mind on this. I thank the committee, all the Members.
Madam Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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