Oral Testimony of Maurine Fanguy
Program Director, Transportation Security Administration
Testimony & Speeches
BEFORE THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION
January 23, 2008
Good morning Chairman Cummings, Ranking Member LaTourette, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity to speak about the steady progress we have made in implementing the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program.
My name is Maurine Fanguy and I am the Director of the TWIC program.
TWIC, as you know, is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program with joint participation from TSA and the United States Coast Guard (USCG) to provide a tamper-resistant biometric credential to maritime workers requiring unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA), (P.L. 107-295).
The TWIC enrollments are well underway. After verifying system readiness, TWIC enrollments began in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, October 16, 2007. I am pleased to report to you that today we have fixed enrollment centers operating at 54 ports, including all 50 of the ports we originally designated, including such major ports as Baltimore, Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York/New Jersey, Jacksonville, and Houston. In fact, this morning, we opened enrollment centers at two more ports in Bourne, Massachusetts, and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Currently, almost 110,000 applicants have pre-enrolled for a TWIC, almost 50,000 have actually enrolled with slightly more than 25,000 cards printed and almost 12,000 cards activated. The average TWIC enrollment time for a port worker is less than 11 minutes.
Progress
As we continue rolling-out the TWIC program throughout the nation, we have also made steady progress in several other areas since our last appearance before this Subcommittee.
- Successful Program Rollout
TSA continues to establish enrollment centers nationwide, and has opened 54 fixed centers to date, while continuing to bring TWIC to the worker with mobile enrollment capability. As of the beginning of January, we have seen over 100,000 workers pre-enroll on our Web site, nearly 50,000 workers enroll for their card, all with an enrollment time of around 10 minutes per visit. We are pleased with the program's start and look forward to continuing our, flexible, phased-in approach to reach all 147 sites nationwide.
- Implementation of the Pre-enrollment Capability
As we announce the start dates at each of our enrollment centers, we offer workers the opportunity to pre-enroll on the TSA Web site. This feature allows workers to set aside an appointment for their TWIC card as well as to enter basic biographic data in advance of their appointment, thus saving valuable time.
- Reducing the Price of a TWIC Card
TWIC is a fee-based program paid for by applicants. Because we realize that these costs are significant, we are mindful of the need to identify areas for cost reduction. Before beginning enrollment, we announced that the fee for a standard TWIC would be $132.50, a decrease from the price anticipated in the Final Rule. Workers with current, comparable threat assessments including HAZMAT, Merchant Mariner Document (MMD) or Free and Secure Trade (FAST) will receive a discounted fee of $105.25. The cost of a lost, damaged or stolen credential is $60.
- Establishing Reader Technical Specifications
The TWIC technical architecture is compatible with the credentialing standards established in Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201-1. This alignment is critical to support card and reader interoperability within the maritime mode. In response to comments received on the initial TWIC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), TSA and USCG decided to remove the requirement for biometric readers from the TWIC final rule to allow time to establish technology specifications to support maritime operations.
TSA and USCG sought the advice of the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC), which established a working group to collaboratively develop new technical specifications that complement FIPS 201-1 and add features that will support high-volume physical access in the harsh maritime environment. The working group included representatives from both the maritime and technology industries.
TSA recently published the TWIC reader hardware and card application working technical specification. The working specification establishes the requirements for biometric card readers for the pilot projects required by the SAFE Port Act. These readers will be tested during the pilot program. As the card and readers are envisioned to operate when TWIC is fully implemented, use of a PIN will not be necessary to release the biometric, unless the owner/operator chooses to use contact readers and the contact side of the credential.
- Identifying Card Reader Pilot Participants and Holding Kick-Off Meetings
As required by the SAFE Port Act, in cooperation with the USCG we have initiated pilot programs with five partners across the country to test card readers. The pilots will test access control technologies in real world marine environments. Our current list of participants includes the Port Authorities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Brownsville, and New York/New Jersey, in addition to Watermark Cruises in Annapolis, Maryland. For FY 2008, Congress appropriated $8.1 million to support the card reader pilots, enabling TSA and the USCG to move forward with this important program. As part of the outreach efforts for the TWIC program and in conjunction with the Department's Port Security Grant Program, we continue to seek additional participants. Our objective is to include pilot test participants that are representative of a variety of facilities and vessels in a variety of geographic locations and environmental conditions. There appears to be sufficient interest from the maritime community to achieve this objective.
We are in the process of finalizing the test approach for the pilots. We are working with DHS's Science and Technology Directorate and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish a test plan that will evaluate the card-reader interface under a variety of conditions and assess its impact on operations. Through the pilot tests, we will investigate the impacts of requiring biometric identity verification on business processes, technology, and operational impacts on facilities and vessels of various size, type, and location. As the program proceeds, the pilots will inform the USCG's TWIC reader rulemaking process and ultimately result in final regulations that require the deployment of transportation security card readers consistent with the findings of the pilot program.
Lessons Learned and Future Efforts
As we move forward with the TWIC program, we are committed to incorporating our 'lessons learned' to drive sound management decisions that improve all aspects of the program and continue to closely monitor the end-to-end process to ensure accurate and timely security threat assessments are being conducted and high quality credentials are produced. We are proud of the significant progress we have made during the past six months and we remain mindful of the challenges that lie ahead. These include:
- Looking for efficiencies by eliminating duplicative regulatory processes. TSA and Coast Guard are developing procedures for the sharing of fingerprints, identity verification, criminal history, and photographs for TWIC and Merchant Mariner Documents, which is expected to save not only money but time. In addition, merchant mariners will no longer be required to visit a Regional Exam Center to obtain and renew their credentials, resulting in substantial time and travel savings.
- Placing the highest value in stakeholder input; it is time well spent. The public hearings, comments to the NPRM, meeting with operators and associations, and contributions of advisory councils all added great value. We came away from each and every one of these efforts better informed about the challenges, the unacceptable impacts, and the practicable options for protecting our ports.
- Addressing the impact on small businesses. TSA and the Coast Guard worked closely with the Small Business Administration to minimize the financial and operational impact on small businesses wherever possible. The rule includes provisions that allow MTSA-regulated passenger vessels (excluding cruise ships) to establish employee access areas for crewmembers that do not require unescorted access to secure areas such as the pilot house and engine room. This provision reduces the impact on those employees who rarely need to use spaces beyond those designated for support of passengers while maintaining the integrity of vessels' secure areas. We are also producing and distributing a Small Business Compliance Guide to assist small businesses in their implementation of the program.
- Preserving State regulatory flexibility whenever practical. Mariner regulations and port security plans preempt state regulations. However, the TWIC regulations do not prohibit States from requiring background checks and badging systems for non-security purposes beyond the TWIC regulation. States may need to set standards for important purposes other than terrorism threats, such as theft or organized crime. As such, TSA is continuing to work with States like Florida, who have put a significant amount of effort into their access control systems.
- Promoting and safeguarding privacy. All data collected at an enrollment center is completely deleted from the enrollment center work stations after transmission to TSA. The entire enrollment record (including all fingerprints collected) is stored solely in a secure TSA system, which is protected through role-based entry, encryption, and segmentation to prevent unauthorized use. No paper records with personal identification information are created in the enrollment process.
- Implementing technical innovation and adaptive contract management. The TWIC card is a 21st century technology that accommodates evolving IT standards suited to emerging needs that span local, international, public, and private interests. This requires continual reevaluation of the scope and methods of contracting. The recent Lockheed Martin performance-based contract award is a culmination of our efforts to date. We will continue to look for and implement adaptive program planning, aggressive contractor oversight, and metrics to ensure the success of the program.
- Addressing new issues that may arise as we continue to implement the program. Coordinating the technology, such as card readers, create a changing environment and program control constraints. This is especially the case when the technology must be deployed to a vast multitude of entities with remote connectivity challenges (e.g., vessels) and varying degrees of access control system capabilities. We will closely monitor the results of the card reader pilot and work with the USCG to ensure the results are reflected in the final rulemaking.
Conclusion
In implementing TWIC, we are taking steps that constitute an extremely important aspect to the security of our port facilities and vessels. TSA will continue to work with the U.S. Coast Guard and our maritime stakeholders to ensure that, for the first time in history, thousands of independent businesses will have one interoperable security network and workers will hold a common credential that can be used across that entire network.
I appreciate the Subcommittee's keen interest in an effective implementation of TWIC and I thank you for your support. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have.
