Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 710) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security
to prepare a comprehensive security assessment of the transportation
security card program, and for other purposes.

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under
consideration.

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.

I rise today in strong support of H.R. 710, the Essential
Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act.
First, I would like to thank the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson
Lee) for reintroducing this thoughtful legislation and the gentlewoman
from Michigan (Mrs. Miller) for her leadership in moving it through her
subcommittee last Congress.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation calls for a security assessment to
determine the efficacy of the Transportation Worker Identification
Credential, commonly known as the TWIC program. This bill will help
Congress better determine the value of the TWIC program and
simultaneously allow the Department to proceed with finalizing the
long-awaited card reader rule.

I support this bill under consideration on the floor today because it
responds to a key recommendation of the Government Accountability
Office that the TWIC program should have a baseline security assessment
before the program moves forward.

I have several thriving ports in my district, such as Savannah,
Brunswick, and Kings Bay. As many of my colleagues who also have ports
in their districts know, TWIC is a port security program that has been
wrought with constant delays and questions about its overall security
value.

Last Congress, the Border and Maritime Subcommittee held a hearing
with the Coast Guard, TSA, and GAO on the TWIC program and the ongoing
concerns therein, and this legislation is a result of that strong
oversight.

It may be hard to believe, but more than a decade after the
legislation that required TWIC was first enacted, there has been no
security or effectiveness assessment of the program to assess the
underlying assumptions of the security and access control concerns the
card was intended to mitigate.

This bill seeks to answer the simple question: How, if at all, does
TWIC improve maritime security? This should have been one of the very
first things the Department did when it began to implement this
program, and this bill ensures it is done.

The TWIC card was initially designed to prevent terrorists from
gaining access to sensitive parts of our Nation's ports through the use
of biometric-enabled credentials. However, with no biometric reader
regulations in place, the TWIC card is currently used as a flash pass
since most facilities and vessels are neither currently required to nor
voluntarily utilize biometric readers. The lack of biometric readers,
therefore, limits the effectiveness of this program.

For several years, members of the Homeland Security Committee have
been calling on the Department to release the card reader rule to
provide some certainty to workers and industry.

The final rule to require TWIC readers to be used at the riskiest 5
percent of all TWIC-regulated vessels and facilities has not been
issued. The notice of proposed rulemaking was posted almost 2 years ago
which was nearly 6 years after workers were first required to pay for
and obtain a TWIC card.

The delays are so significant that workers have already had to renew
their biometric credentials in the time it has taken to issue
regulations on credential readers to actually utilize the biometric-
enabled technology. This is absurd.

While we all agree there is much room for improvement with the TWIC
program, putting it on hold for several more years would do more harm
than good. The business community has been preparing for this TWIC rule
for several years.

This bill would give them certainty about the requirements of the
TWIC program. It also allows the Coast Guard and TSA to continue their
efforts to deliver the port security program Congress expected years
ago.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 710 requires the GAO to perform consistent
reviews of the TWIC program and to follow the changes the Department
makes as a result of the required assessment. This added level of
review will provide Congress with progress updates for future legislative
action.

The proposed rule and open GAO recommendations lead to some very
basic questions about mitigating threat, risk, and vulnerability at our
Nation's ports and how the TWIC program should be used effectively to
prevent a potential terrorist attack.

We have an obligation, Mr. Speaker, to get this right. I urge my
colleagues to support H.R. 710, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the
gentlewoman from Texas for her leadership in this very important issue.

Once again, I want to urge all of my colleagues to support this
strong, bipartisan piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance
of my time.

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