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TSA to test new transportation ID cards
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration said it plans to test standardized transportation worker identification cards at two airports and two ports. It's a concept the TSA hopes will lay the foundation for a trusted traveler card that could help speed frequent travelers through airports. TSA spokesman Robert Johnson Wednesday said Los Angeles International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport and the ports of Long Beach, California, and Wilmington, Delaware, have been selected for the pilot projects to test the worker ID cards. But Congress has questions and the TSA says House appropriators are holding up the funding. Johnson says that means even the pilot program can't go forward right now. Transportation officials say they consider ID cards for transportation workers and airline travelers an important aspect of security. One official said the concept is for transportation workers to use a card with a chip -- so-called smart-card technology -- as a way of immediately identifying and verifying their identification and location of employment. Currently, airports and airlines are responsible for developing their own identification cards for workers. There is no standardized card that employees, like pilots and flight attendants who travel from city to city, can use to prove their identity. Johnson said the TSA was still working on the details of the plan. "Congress has questions," he said. "What kind of technology should be used? How would we implement it?" Another key question: What kind of safeguards would there be to prevent terrorists from using stolen ID cards? A transportation official said that was still being developed and was a "primary concern." The official said experiments in biometric technologies, including a test program at Boston's Logan Airport of face-scanning technology, has had "mixed results." Security experts say fingerprinting technology, given its long history of use, was a more viable possibility for now. Massport, which operates Logan Airport, announced Monday that it will go forward with deploying equipment to verify identification of employees, the first airport in the United States to do so. The technology, developed by Imaging Automation and Intelli-Check Inc. will be used to determine if a document is fraudulent, expired, or tampered with, and if the photo or text match any government watch lists of criminals or terrorists. TSA head James Loy recently reversed the agency's position on a trusted traveler card for airline passengers. He told Congress he supports the concept. But officials say no detailed plan has yet been developed on who would be eligible for the cards, what kind of screening would still be done on these registered travelers, or what the costs would be for a nationwide system.
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