Homeland Security Focus Areas

Transportation Security

Electronic Cargo Data Regulations Completed

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) completed its proposed rules for electronic reporting of cargo data as required by the Trade Act of 2002 on 17 July, approximately two weeks later than expected. CBP Commissioner Robert Conner said, "I rashly predicted that we would have these out by the end of June." The new regulations stipulate that all modes of commercial transportation including aircraft, train, truck, and ship must electronically submit data about the contents of all cargo before crossing the United States border. Specifically, the carriers must report carrier identification, origin, destination, complete cargo description, and the names and addresses of the shipper and consignee, the Journal of Commerce reported. The allotted time for reporting cargo data varies from one mode of transportation to another. Trains must report two hours before entering the United States, while trucks must report at least 30 minutes prior. Ships will experience almost no change from the 24-hour rule except that data will be filed electronically. The JOC reported that the new rules became available for inspection on 17 July, and will be published in the Federal Register on 23 July. The regulations are expected to go into effect in 90 days, around 21 October.

ANALYSIS: As the new electronic cargo tracking program is implemented, CBP officials will continue working to smooth out both anticipated and unanticipated problems. Authorities are already working to fix the anticipated problem caused by the lack of a central database for all cargo tracking. Until CBP completes its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), carriers will report to various pre-existing databases including the Census Bureau's Automated Export System and the Automated Manifest System. CBP officials also stated that they would eventually consider an expedited cargo program for "highly compliant exporters" and participants in the known-shipper program and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).

Source:  Homeland Security Monitor

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

July 21, 2003 - 9:53 p.m.
Senate Bill Puts Rail Security Plan on a Fast Track
By Jeremy Torobin, CQ Staff Writer

Earlier this year, the Homeland Security Department's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) suggested that the colored warning placards adorning the sides of chemical rail cars were little more than advertisements for terrorists or saboteurs and should be removed.
Nonsense, replied the Transportation Department's (DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The placards are essential to fire fighters and other emergency crews rolling up to the scene of derailments or other accidents.
The incident underscored an ongoing tiff between the two agencies since the new Homeland Security Department (DHS) opened its doors seven months ago.
In this latest, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), among other first responder groups, weighed in with the FRA.
"We were kind of lost on [TSA's] rationale," IAFC President Randy Bruegman said in an interview. "It's not like terrorists don't have ways to figure out which tank cars are carrying what."
The agencies eventually agreed to leave the placards in place - at least for the foreseeable future.
But for some congressional overseers, the dispute highlighted the need for a division of responsibilities in which each agency's roles and authorities are spelled out.
As a result, a bill approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last week gives the departments two months to work out their respective roles in overseeing the rail industry.
According to a committee analysis of the bill, "Many security issues have a safety component and actions by the TSA to improve railroad security could have a spill-over effect on safety matters regulated by [the Federal Railroad Administration]."
"We know there are going to be some gray areas, but we want to have an agreement in place before these issues come up," a committee aide said, referring to the placards issue.
The departments have reached a common ground in other areas.
They hashed out an agreement dealing with the Federal Aviation Administration's jurisdiction over the operation and physical safety of airplanes after the creation of the Transportation Security Administration in 2001. And they struck a deal on the role of the Coast Guard when that agency moved from DOT to DHS earlier this year.
But agreements on rail security have proved elusive.
The Senate legislation, sponsored by Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and ranking Democrat Ernest F. Hollings, S.C., would direct DOT and DHS to develop a memorandum within 60 days of enactment on "railroad transportation security matters, including the processes the departments will follow to promote communications, efficiency, and nonduplication of effort."
TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said Monday he was unsure if there already is a timeline for such an agreement. Other DHS officials could not be reached for comment.
FRA spokesman Warren Flatau said only that the agency is "already working in very close cooperation with the TSA, the railroad industry and state and local governments to address a wide range of security-related matters."
The two agencies are developing a rail system inspection guide for use by police and railroad security guards to inspect trains for bombs and other threats, DHS undersecretary Asa Hutchinson said in June.
Also, during Operation Liberty Shield - the high-alert imposed at the start of the war in Iraq - railroad operators deployed more guards in railyards and tracked the movement of tank cars carrying hazardous materials.
However, unlike aviation and port security, no formal railroad security regime exists.
In May, the General Accounting Office called on DHS Secretary Tom Ridge and DOT Secretary Norman Y. Mineta to develop a "risk-based" plan to address rail security and establish time frames for developing measures to protect hazardous shipments.

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 21 July:

Cargo Planes Exempt from Reinforced-Door Rule

Cargo planes will not be required to strengthen their cockpit doors as long as they adopt other federally-approved security procedures, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday. Under the 2001 aviation security law, all cargo and passenger airlines were required to reinforce flight-deck doors by April 9 of this year. But a provision of the fiscal 2003 omnibus appropriations law delayed the deadline for cargo carriers until the Transportation Security Administration determined whether the rule should apply to cargo aircraft, many of which do not have cockpit doors. The new FAA rule, published in the July 18 Federal Register, will take effect Aug. 18. But the agency said it will accept public comments on the rule until Sept. 16, and may modify the regulation based on those comments. - Jeremy Torobin

TSA Releases Balance of Funding for Operation Safe Commerce

Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) announced on 18 July that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released the remaining $28 million of the $58 million allotted for Operation Safe Commerce (OSC), an initiative that Murray helped create to boost security at the nation's three largest cargo container load centers, according to a statement from Murray's office and media reports. In this second round of funding, the ports of Seattle/Tacoma will receive $14.2 million, while the ports of New York/New Jersey and Los Angeles/Long Beach will receive $13. 8 million and $13. 7 million, respectively. Some 75 percent of the cargo containers entering the United States each year come through the ports serving these major metropolitan regions, according to the Associated Press. The grants under Operation Safe Commerce fund port security plans, especially aimed at increasing maritime shipping supply lines, devised by private companies which submit them to the ports' authorities for review. The grants are then awarded on a competitive basis by an executive steering committee made up of the Coast Guard, TSA, and the Department of Transportation, base on recommendations from the ports. Commenting on the release of the funding, Sen. Murray said, "Protecting our ports is not an option, it is a necessity."

ANALYSIS: The release of the funding for Operation Safe Commerce is a fulfillment of a pledge secured from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge by Sen. Murray in June. The program had been at risk of being scaled back after TSA warned that it might divert the remaining $28 million in grants to pay for airport security initiatives. Ridge's pledge came after Murray mounted a challenge to TSA's threat to divert the funds that involved her placing a "hold" on a Bush administration's nominee to a senior budget post. Murray characterized her efforts as having "stood toe-to-toe with the Bush administration," adding, "Today's announcement proves that it pays to stand up of what's right. Despite the delay, these grants will go a long way toward protecting our ports and the thousands of people who live and work nearby." Murray also was successful in earmarking an additional $30 million for OSC in the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2004, which is currently moving through Congress.

Airport screeners find loaded gun in teddy bear
From Patty Davis and Beth Lewandowski
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) --Screeners at a passenger checkpoint at the Orlando International Airport last Friday found a loaded handgun hidden inside a stuffed teddy bear belonging to a 10-year-old boy, the Transportation Security Administration has told CNN.
The boy was part of a family of five that had been on vacation in Orlando and was returning home to Ohio, the TSA said.
"The family reported it had been given to the child at a hotel in Orlando two days earlier," TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said.
The .22-caliber Derringer, according to another TSA official, was "artfully hidden" inside the bear.
Screeners became suspicious after the teddy bear was x-rayed, and a small hole was found on the bottom of the stuffed toy, the official said.
Johnson said the FBI is examining who gave the child the bear and why.
The family was questioned and sent on their way, he said.
The TSA said the gun had been reported stolen in 1996 in Barstow, California, after a residential burglary.
"We are criticized a lot for screening grannies and babies: 'Why are they checking this? My two-year old isn't a terrorist.' This underscores the need to screen everyone and everything," said Johnson.
"It's lucky that we kept it off the flight," he added, noting it could have fired mid-flight while the child was playing with the stuffed animal.
Johnson stressed passengers should never accept anything from a stranger and take it on a flight.
Federal screeners have made two other catches recently. In Hartford, Connecticut, screeners stopped a man who had slipped a knife down the back of a six-year-old child's shirt to try to slip it past security, Johnson said.
Also at that airport, screeners stopped a 67-year-old man who had hollowed out his prosthetic leg to conceal a nine-inch knife in a scabbard.
Both were arrested, Johnson said.
"These sorts of things make the point that we need to screen everything," he said. "We can't allow terrorists any opportunity."

July 16, 2003
TSA handgun contract draws ire of firearms makers
By Richard H.P. Sia, CongressDaily

Through a series of missteps, the Transportation Security Administration has run afoul of the world's leading gun manufacturers in an attempt to award a three-year, $5 million contract for the semiautomatic handguns it plans to give commercial airline pilots to defend their cockpits.
The agency drew the heaviest fire after it appeared to bow to pressure from the office of Rep. J. D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., to drop a possible deal with the Austrian gunmaker Glock and focus instead on buying guns from venerable Smith & Wesson, an American-owned firm based in Hayworth's district.
Only after vigorous protests last month by Beretta, an Italian handgun supplier to the U.S. military, and other firms did TSA drop narrowly drawn contract specifications favorable to Smith & Wesson and open up the competition industry-wide.
The troubles over the handgun contract have renewed questions in Congress over the agency's contracting practices, particularly its apparent tendency to avoid competitive bidding for its contracts. House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., already has asked GAO to look into more than 90 sole-source contracts valued at over $50 million that have been awarded by TSA since its inception a little over a year ago.
These contracts "could easily and should have been competed to safeguard federal tax dollars," Sabo said last month. He declined comment Tuesday on TSA's attempt to buy handguns, except to say through his spokesman that he remains "concerned about sole-source contracts and mismanagement" at the agency.
TSA spokesman Robert Johnson defended the agency's actions Tuesday, saying, "Everything we've done has been done by the book."
"When warranted, we'll make adjustments in a manner that is fair to all," he said when asked about complaints from potential bidders. "We have our top people ... managing it so taxpayers will get the best deal."
The agency has been under intense pressure from Congress to accelerate the training and arming of commercial pilots under the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act enacted last November. The so-called Federal Flight Deck Officers program, which allows pilots to volunteer for firearms training and become certified law enforcement officers, took off in April when TSA put the first 44 pilots through a six-day training course in Georgia and gave them .40 caliber semiautomatic pistols made by Glock.
The next classes were to have started earlier this month, but gun industry sources said the procurement troubles contributed to a delay. TSA recently announced weekly classes would resume this weekend in Georgia, but came under attack in Congress last week for failing to consult key lawmakers in deciding to move all training to a single remote site in the New Mexico desert after Labor Day.
According to several industry sources who spoke with CongressDaily on the condition they or their firms would not be named because of the still-pending contract award, TSA bought Glocks for the first training class through an open-ended contract between the Austrian firm and the Secret Service.
TSA officials then began looking for another federal contract with Glock on which they could piggyback for larger, extended purchases, these sources said. Although TSA officials initially favored buying revolvers-which trainers recommended as being easier to maintain and use in the confined space of a cockpit, sources said-they decided late last year that a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun should be the pilots' standard firearm-in particular, a law enforcement model capable of firing a magazine of 12 or more hollow-point bullets.
The decision caught Smith & Wesson by surprise, which was preparing to offer TSA its line of revolvers. Company executives met with TSA officials in January and, according to one well-informed source, "waved the flag a bit" to argue that Smith & Wesson, which reverted from British to American ownership two years ago, should have a fair shot at supplying the guns-in-cockpits program.
Then Glocks were handed out to the first class of pilots in April, so Smith & Wesson executives visited Hayworth's office to complain that TSA might not seek open competition for a long-term handgun contract, shutting out the only U.S.-owned manufacturer of .40-caliber pistols.
A Hayworth spokesman confirmed the meeting took place, adding that the issue was handled "at the staff level."
"We called over [to TSA] to express our concern about the initial [procurement] process," Hayworth spokesman Larry Van Hoose said.
Soon afterward, TSA announced it was soliciting bids for handguns "under full and open competition." Van Hoose observed, "That's all Smith & Wesson wanted."
But the kind of gun TSA described in its solicitation on May 22 was so specific-it must have, for example, a "completely concealed hammer" without a "spur," a minimum 12-round magazine of a certain size with the "spring tension" of 10 coils, and an ability to fire 10,000 rounds without breaking down-that many potential bidders cried foul. Among them were Beretta, SigArms and other handgun suppliers to U.S. military services and law enforcement agencies. Some pointed out that federal air marshals who work for TSA aboard commercial airliners carry SigArms pistols with visible hammers.
The agency also invoked an arcane "Buy American" executive order that made guns from Italian (Beretta), Austrian (Glock) or other foreign firms ineligible, but exempted Russian- and Chinese-made weapons. Adding to the firestorm was TSA's insistence that the first 200 guns from an initial order of up to 2,400 be delivered by July 1, a date that has slipped several times.
"There is no gun company in the world that can deliver 200 guns by [the latest deadline of] July 9th, with only a few weeks notice, unless they had prior knowledge of the contract award," protested an unidentified company in an exchange of questions and answers that TSA posted on the FedBizOpps Web site for potential bidders. "It normally takes 45 to 90 days to make and deliver guns once an order is received. This is the industry standard," the protester wrote.
TSA wants to buy as many as 9,600 guns over the life of the contract, which would expire Sept. 30, 2006. With .40 caliber pistols costing about $500 each in the commercial market, the contract may be worth $4.8 million to the winner, although industry sources said the bragging rights may prove more valuable to a company's business than the revenues.
On June 12, Beretta filed a motion with a federal mediator to suspend the contracting process, citing "a range of restrictive and ... strange and inexplicable requirements" for the handguns.
The specifications may have been written "to thwart congressional intent" that TSA train and arm airline pilots, or were "so narrowly tailored" so that only one firearm could qualify, Jeffrey Reh, general counsel at Beretta's U.S. headquarters in Accokeek, Md., charged in the motion.
Reh sent copies of the motion to House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., whose panel oversees TSA, and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in whose district Beretta is based, but aides to the lawmakers said neither of them intervened in the dispute.
Later that afternoon, TSA abruptly announced it was dropping all of its controversial requirements, deleting those for the concealed hammer and magazine coils, cutting the initial delivery to 50 guns and waiving the "Buy American" provision.
"When we filed our protest, the TSA was very prompt in meeting with us," Reh said in an interview this week. "At this point, we're satisfied."

IAEA Conference Highlighted Need to Enhance Safety of Radioactive Material Shipments

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference, held in Vienna from 7-11 July, sought to address growing concerns by governments and non-governmental organizations about safeguarding the transportation of radioactive material by land, air, sea, and rail from terrorists. While the Director General of the IAEA, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, told the conference that the industry transporting these material has "an excellent safety record," he also acknowledged that the agency needs to do more to reassure governments and the public that standards and regulations guiding and protecting shipment of radioactive material are as rigorous as possible. To accomplish that goal ElBaradei said there should be increased communication between governments, as well as between governments and the public about the safety of these shipments. He added that the IAEA and other regulatory groups must resolve the public's desire for advanced notification of radioactive shipments with the security risk posed by that information being used to terrorists to attack or steal a shipment. IAEA Chairman Max Hughes emphasized the need to develop or adapt regulations so that they can be applied across all types of radioactive material shipments, while cautioning that a resolution cannot be expected immediately due to complex legal issues inherent in creating international standards.

ANALYSIS: Despite ElBaradei's assertion that the transport of radioactive materials has an "excellent" safety record, concerns were expressed after the conference that the IAEA is not prepared to counter the emerging threats following the 11 September attacks. John Large, a nuclear consultant for Greenpeace, said, "What [IAEA officials] haven't prepared for is an intelligent terrorist attack where they know the vulnerabilities of your emergency plan," Reuters reported. Large criticized the IAEA for having done little since 11 September to improve the security of radioactive shipments across the world. "If you're going to ship nuclear materials from one place to another, you have to go through populated areas. You have to bring the risk to population," Large said. That terrorists would obtain significant quantities of radioactive material to build and deploy a dirty bomb is a major concern for the U.S. government and its citizens, especially at under protected U.S. sea ports. The U.S. Department of Transportation will hold a meeting to discuss the IAEA conference and radioactive material transportation issues on 22 July.

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 15 July:

Arms Cache Found in Shipping Container

Homeland Security officials in Portland, Ore., seized a large cache of weapons bound for El Salvador in late June after becoming suspicious about its manifest information, which was filed for a shipping container traveling through several U.S. ports, the department said Monday. About $421,500 worth of pistols, shotguns and ammunition magazines originating in China, scheduled for stops in Vancouver, Portland, Oakland and Long Beach and lacking the proper State Department documentation for shipment was seized. The Chinese company that shipped the cargo recently had been added to a Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control list of concerns barred from doing business with the United States, according to Mike Milne, a Seattle-based Bureau of Customs and Border Protection spokesman. Milne declined to identify the company. - Jeremy Torobin

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 14 July:

IAEA Official Finds ‘Room for Improvement’ in Security of Nuclear Shipments

Nuclear materials remain susceptible to terrorist attacks during transit, participants at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna, Austria, told Reuters. IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said that, despite some security concerns, the industry has “an excellent safety record” of transporting radioactive materials. But Reuters quoted an anonymous IAEA official saying the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks showed there is “room for improvement” in the security of nuclear materials shipments. And John H. Large, a consultant for the environmental group Greenpeace, told Reuters that while shipping companies’ emergency plans may limit the damage from “unintelligent” nuclear accidents, they are insufficient for dealing with the threat of terrorists attacking loads of radioactive cargo. -Jeremy Torobin

July 9, 2003
TSA firearms training changes trigger Hill outcry
By Richard H.P. Sia, CongressDaily

The agency responsible for training airline pilots to defend their cockpits with semiautomatic handguns said it will move its training program from Georgia to a remote desert site in New Mexico after Labor Day, a decision that triggered angry protests Tuesday by House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., and other lawmakers.
"They're not happy campers on the Hill," Mica said in an interview, referring to himself and his colleagues.
Mica lambasted the Transportation Security Administration, which Congress tapped last November to run the guns-in-cockpits program.
"There are members who are upset the agency turned it into a bureaucratic, costly endeavor-and we want something simple," Mica said.
Mica, an architect of the airline security program, threatened to stop the move legislatively, saying emphatically that "there will be a directive through the security bill in the [Federal Aviation Administration] reauthorization, now in conference, or by working with appropriators" to insert a rider to a spending bill.
"There's significant opposition" in Congress to moving the training classes to the single location in New Mexico, he added.
The TSA will move its training classes because the Georgia facility, one of several Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers across the country, cannot handle the program's anticipated growth, a spokeswoman at the TSA regional office in Scottsdale, Ariz., told CongressDaily late last week.
Under what is officially known as the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, the TSA has trained and certified only one class of 44 pilots in firearms use to defend their cockpits from terrorists or other dangerous intruders. Those pilots, who have been sworn in as law enforcement officers, graduated in April.
Mica said he and his subcommittee learned of the relocation plans in a heated closed-door meeting two weeks ago with retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, the TSA administrator.
Aides to Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., in whose district the current training activities are located, said Georgia lawmakers first learned of a possible move when USA Today reported June 6 that TSA was offering its trainers the chance to relocate to New Mexico, where it said the agency planned to hold all future firearms training classes for pilots.
The aides said Kingston, who was en route to Washington Tuesday, was angry and frustrated that he and his staff picked up some details from training center officials in Georgia but could not get anything confirmed by TSA headquarters.
On June 30, the agency added to the uncertainty when it issued a little-noticed news release announcing that six-day training classes would resume July 20.
"Classes will be conducted at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center's campuses in Glynco, Ga., and Artesia, N.M.," the TSA release said.
But late last week, Suzanne Luber at TSA's regional office confirmed to CongressDaily that all classes at the Georgia site would end by Labor Day.
"We'll move classes to Artesia in September," Luber said, explaining that the amount of firearms training at the Georgia facility has been "growing exponentially," crowding out the classes for airline pilots, which are expected to increase in size and frequency in fiscal 2004.
The New Mexico site is better suited for the TSA program, Luber added.
"We have three airplanes on the ground and we do our federal air marshal training there," she said.
Last May, Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, urged TSA to examine the availability of other federal law enforcement training facilities, including the one in Artesia, so pilots who volunteer for the training can travel to the nearest site.
Officials at the labor union declined to comment on the move to Artesia, although some pilots have groused about the inconvenience of the desert location, accessible only by car after flying a small plane to Roswell, N.M. Under the program, pilots must pay their own travel, lodging and daily expenses.
Mica accused TSA of failing to respond to a consensus view in Congress that also supports using multiple locations, but with a clearly defined role for private instructors under federal supervision.
"We want a dispersal of training at federal facilities and we want it open to competition in the private sector," he said.
Refresher courses for the twice-a-year recertification requirement should also be held at more than one site and with private contractors, Mica added.
Instead, TSA will move its own trainers across the country and continue to put pilots "through all the hoops" to earn the right to keep guns in their cockpits, Mica said.
"It makes no sense," he said.

Airport Security: TSA Smoothes the Way for "Persons with Disabilities"
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 27, 2003

Persons with disabilities will find travel smoother due to the advanced training of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners. Today, TSA announced its Persons with Disabilities Program dedicated to providing a more secure and dignified program for screening persons with disabilities. The announcement was made at a news conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
TSA designed, with the help of various groups representing persons with disabilities, a screener training program that provides better security and customer service to affected travelers.
"Before September 11, 2001, persons with disabilities were on their own, unsure of how they would be treated at the security checkpoint," said Admiral James M. Loy, TSA Administrator. "Today, our professional screeners have the unique opportunity to better serve this group of Americans."
"I used to dread going to the airport but now the screeners are not only considerate, but they understand exactly how to deal with my disability," said Ruth Ann Miller, Community Outreach Coordinator, Making Choices for Independent Living and member of TSA Disability Coalition.
Sandra Cammaroto developed the program as the first manager of the TSA Screening of Persons with Disabilities Program. Before TSA, there were no specific or consistent procedures to screen persons with disabilities. The program was designed to train TSA screeners how to screen consistently, safely and with sensitivity to individual needs. In addition, TSA publishes travel tips on its website so persons with disabilities can learn what to expect at security checkpoints.
"TSA's goal is to ensure that every passenger with a disability knows what to expect at every airport, every time, everywhere," said Cammaroto.
Cammaroto focused the program on passengers whose disabilities fall into four categories -- mobility, visual, hearing, and hidden. 'Mobility' refers to limitation of body movement, and involves people using wheelchairs, scooters, crutches, canes, etc. 'Hearing' includes persons who are deaf or have a hearing loss. 'Visual' includes persons who are blind or have limited (low) vision. And, 'Hidden' refers to persons who have heart and lung conditions, diabetes, brain injuries, etc., and may be using devices such as a pacemaker, insulin pumps, or other devices.
For more information and to learn about the travel tips for persons with disabilities, please visit our website at http://www.tsatraveltips.us.

DHS Signs Promise to Reimburse Airports for Some Security Costs

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it signed on 7 July "Letters of Intent" with Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport "to help defray the costs of installing permanent explosive detection systems that are integrated with the airports' checked baggage conveyor systems," according to a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) statement and media reports. The airports entered into these reimbursement arrangements with DHS' TSA after negotiations over the cost of capital improvements incurred by the airports that are required to satisfy congressional security mandates. According to these "Letters of Intent," Seattle-Tacoma will be reimbursed $159 million, Dallas/Fort Worth $104 million and Boston Logan $87 million. These airports are the first of several others expected to conclude similar arrangements with TSA over the next several weeks.

ANALYSIS: TSA Administrator Adm. James Loy promised airports in 2002 that his agency would help them with their capital improvement expenditures. Commenting on the Letters of Intent, he said, "These agreements will give airports the resources they need to meet the security challenges they face in the post-September 11th world," the TSA statement said. Under the arrangements, TSA will reimburse the airports, from future appropriations, if available, for 75 percent of allowed costs over three to four years with the airports agreeing to cover the balance. Allowed costs include "preliminary site preparations, structural reinforcement to support new equipment, electrical work, heating, air conditioning and other environmental improvements, as well as conveyor belts, tables, and physical enhancements necessary to operate an in line system." Although these agreements are mainly promises to pay the airports, they are likely to draw further criticism from the maritime industry that airline security is being favored over maritime security. Although the maritime industry has its own congressional security mandates, is expected to pick up most of the costs for meeting them.

DOT Announces Web Site to Help State, Local Agencies Improve Security for Roadways

The Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) unveiled on 27 June "a new Web site to provide state and local agencies simple access to information on improving security in the operation of the surface transportation system," a DOT statement said. The new Web site, "FHWA Operations Security," provides state and local agencies specific information on planning the management of emergencies more effectively, aligning action plans with the federal Homeland Security Advisory System and improving the military's mobilization along highways. FHWA Administrator Mary Peters said, "The need to ensure the security of America's surface transportation system is a top priority...We are working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to help state and local officials develop and carry out a comprehensive set of improvements to increase the security of our transportation network."

ANALYSIS: Because highways are the main means of responding to emergencies and incidents, the need to ensure their operation, integrity and safety has been made paramount following the attacks of 11 September. The FHWA Web site offers valuable transportation security information through links to all DOT administrations, other relevant federal agencies and associations participating in the National Associations Working Group for Intelligent Transportation Systems. It was "developed...in response to the expressed need on the part of state and local partners for technical guidance and best practices," the agency said.

US Nets First Agreement in Container Security Expansion Effort

Sri Lanka signed an agreement with the United States on 25 June to allow US customs officials to inspect containers at the port of Colombo that are bound for ports in the U.S., according to media reports. In doing so, Sri Lanka became the first country to sign up for a second phase of the US Container Security Initiative (CSI), aimed at preventing terrorists from smuggling weapons of mass destruction into the US inside cargo containers. Sri Lanka agreed to give US customs officials the right to inspect cargo, share intelligence and other information and establish a risk management system, Dow Jones reported. The agreement, signed in Brussels in advance of the World Customs Organization meeting which convenes on 26 June, coincides with a prior announcement of a planned expansion for the port of Colombo. The Sri Lankan port is the main port for cargo transshipment traffic in the Indian sub-continent, according to the Journal of Commerce.

ANALYSIS: Sri Lanka's signature of this bilateral agreement signals a quick payoff for the Bush administration's newly announced effort to expand the CSI to strategic locations beyond the program's initial focus of the world's 20 major ports. Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced the expansion of CSI during an event at the port of New York/New Jersey on 12 June, indicating that it would "enable the Department [of Homeland Security] to extend port security protection from 68 percent of container traffic to more than 80 percent." Deputy Head of the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection Douglas Browning, who attended the signing ceremony, said, "It is important that we stand shoulder to shoulder against a new and unusual common enemy to protect not only our citizens, but also our economic strength and well being," AP quoted him as saying.

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
June 23, 2003 - 7:36 p.m.
Rules Ahoy: Shipping News Imminent from Feds
By Jeremy Torobin, CQ Staff Writer

A number of key changes in the way cargo and people move into and around the United States will be kicked into high gear by federal actions in the next few days and weeks.
The Coast Guard is expected to issue a series of interim final rules this week on shipping and ports to implement various elements of a comprehensive maritime security law enacted last year.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget completed its review of the regulations, which many insiders expect to total more than 800 pages, on June 20.
According to one highly knowledgeable Capitol Hill source, the rules could be published in the Federal Register by the end of this week, even though the Coast Guard has said repeatedly the rules would not be out until July 1 or later.
The rules, which are expected to track closely with International Maritime Organization security protocols adopted last December, will aim to force many domestic vessels, the nation's 361 public ports and other piers, terminals and loading docks to comply with higher security standards more typically associated with ships and ports involved in international seafaring.
Coast Guard officials estimate affected ships, ports and other facilities will spend $1.4 billion in the first year alone to buy equipment and to hire and train security officers.
All ships and all ports will have to conduct exhaustive security vulnerability assessments, a process that already is underway or completed at some facilities, and submit security plans for review and approval.
The Shipping News
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection will publish a highly contentious new cargo-reporting rule any day, since its initial target had been early June and a congressional deadline dictates that the final rule be out by Oct. 1.
"We're still being told that it should be before the month is out, so we'll have two potentially very interesting rules coming out at the same time," said Christopher L. Koch, president and CEO of the World Shipping Council, which represents U.S. and foreign sea carriers.
Koch was referring to port security rules and the Trade Act of 2002 which requires the former U.S. Customs Service to draw up rules by Oct. 1 for shippers to provide advance information electronically on all cross-border cargo moving by air, land or sea to or from the United States.
Sea Lines
A similar rule, requiring sea carriers to submit detailed cargo manifests 24 hours before the goods are loaded, has been in effect since earlier this year. That rule, however, did not require electronic filing and only applied to U.S.-bound cargo.
Shipping industry officials have groused that the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's failure to publish the rule by early June is cutting into the traditional 90-day comment period for major regulations.
Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary of Homeland Security for border and transportation security, told the annual conference of the American Association of Exporters and Importers last week that the reporting rules were making their way through Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's office and the Office of Management and Budget and "should be out by the end of June," according to the Journal of Commerce Online.
Landing Rights
Also, the Transportation Security Administration's Office of National Risk Assessment is expected to release, possibly this week, a review of how a proposal to use data-mining technology to assign every airline passenger a terrorist threat "score" might affect ordinary travelers' privacy and civil liberties.
The so-called privacy notice is expected to address the concerns of lawmakers, civil-liberties activists, and the European Union by reflecting changes to the design plan for the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II.
The TSA has suspended testing of the program, scheduled for deployment next year, pending the review.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., that would freeze funding for CAPPS II until the General Accounting Office can investigate the system. Sabo called the system the "the largest-ever intrusion of the federal government into our personal lives."
His amendment would allow simulation tests but would stop funding for deployment to U.S. airports until after the GAO issues its report.

Kansas City Star
Posted on Mon, Jun. 23, 2003

Seaports have fortified their barriers to terror

The federal government's work to protect America's seaports from terrorism was slow to start but is now making welcome progress.
Every year more than 7 million containers the size of trailer-trucks are unloaded at U.S. ports. The system for making sure they don't contain so-called dirty bombs or other dangerous materials has been porous.
Because the best place to find and stop terrorism weapons is the port of departure, American officials started working with foreign port authorities to identify and search potentially dangerous cargo before it reaches the United States. The program, known as the Container Security Initiative, now operates at 13 of the busiest foreign ports.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge recently announced the start of the second phase, to include some predominantly Islamic countries. When this is fully implemented, Ridge says, it will cover more than 80 percent of the container traffic coming to the United States.
The government also is paying $170 million to improve security at American ports. Ridge recently announced $27 million will go to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., the busiest harbor complex in the country. More than 40 percent of all cargo arriving in the United States comes through those ports.
The money will pay for new patrol boats, better surveillance equipment and other needs.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks awakened Americans to the reality that they are vulnerable and that much work is necessary to better protect the country. Terrorists may strike again, but prudent steps can reduce the danger. Screening cargo headed to U.S. ports and giving those ports better security systems are important improvements.

Air Marshals Seek a Flight Out of TSA to New Agency
By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 19, 2003; Page A25

A tug of war has started at the Department of Homeland Security over the Federal Air Marshal Service, the armed undercover agents assigned to commercial flights.
The air marshals want to leave the Transportation Security Administration in favor of the new Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE). Although both agencies are arms of Homeland Security, the marshals think they have more in common with the many law enforcement agents at BICE than with the TSA's army of security workers who monitor X-ray machines and hand-wand passengers at airport checkpoints.
But the TSA wants the marshals to stay, arguing that the agency would suffer a "significant adverse effect" without them.
The proposed move "reeks of money," said Ivo H. Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied the new department. "The real reason why this is happening is that TSA is under significant pressure from Congress to cut costs and there is a fear within some units of TSA that they will become the victim. They have to prove their worthiness."
In a sign of its financial constraints, the TSA has proposed to use funds targeted for the air marshal program to pay for other needs, according to the House homeland security appropriations subcommittee. The panel recommended a separate account for the marshals outside the TSA.
Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security's undersecretary for border and transportation security, convened a "working group" in May with representatives from both agencies to review the air marshal situation. He said he and Secretary Tom Ridge will make the decision, and Congress will be notified and weigh in on the proposed change. He could not provide a time frame.
There are about 6,000 immigration and customs investigators in the new immigration bureau. Hutchinson said it might make sense to allow the air marshals to "rotate out" to work in immigration or customs after a period of service. Similarly, immigrations and customs agents could train to become air marshals, if needed, he said. He added that he is not considering diminishing the role of air marshals.
"There's some concern about availability of a career path for the air marshals," Hutchinson said. "We want to maintain morale and capability over the long term."
Daalder said the marshals are likely the first of several units in the department that will be shopping around for a more favorable home. "They merged all these agencies in this mammoth organization and there's a lot of jockeying back and forth among units over who gets what power, when," he said.
TSA chief James M. Loy said losing the marshals would "have a significant adverse effect on aviation security," according to his June 11 memo to Hutchinson. Loy inherited the marshals program from the Federal Aviation Administration and oversaw its expansion from a few dozen agents who flew mostly international routes to the thousands of agents stationed in 21 offices around the country and who fly daily.
But Thomas Quinn, director of the air marshal program, favors moving out of TSA, according to air marshal sources. Quinn has sparred with TSA officials at times over policy issues. Several months ago the TSA, under pressure from the airlines, proposed moving air marshals from first-class to coach seats. Quinn opposed this, arguing that proximity to the front of the plane is part of the strategy to protect the cockpit.
In the memo, Loy says the marshals are part of the multilayered "system of systems" in airport security, and they are "critical to TSA's efforts to collect intelligence data for aviation security." Air marshals need to be quickly deployed in response to a terrorist threat and the marshals' headquarters in Atlantic City monitors the routes of commercial airline pilots who fly with guns in the cockpit.
"The [marshals'] mission is primarily protecting the integrity of an aircraft and its passengers, while BICE's role is more focused on complex investigations of border or immigration offenses against criminal organizations," Loy wrote. "These two functions are significantly distinct and may be incompatible."

June 17, 2003

Customs official defends cargo screening policy

From CongressDaily

President Bush's top customs official Monday defended the administration's strategy to safeguard against terrorist attacks through cargo entering the United States, in the face of criticism from Democratic members of a House panel who charged the plan left serious breaches in the nation's security.

Robert Bonner, the commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in the new Homeland Security Department, touted agreements with the host nations of 19 of the 20 largest-shipping ports to U.S. shores that allow U.S. Customs agents stationed overseas to prescreen containers identified as high-risk, in a hearing of the Homeland Security Infrastructure and Border Security Subcommittee.

But Homeland Security ranking member Jim Turner, D-Texas, charged that Customs was not vigilant enough in questioning entrants to the United States across its Mexican and Canadian borders, citing findings from the General Accounting Office in which investigators were able to enter this country with forged identification.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., assailed Bonner because Customs does not screen U.S.-bound cargo traveling on passenger jets before it enters the United States. Bonner replied that this was the jurisdiction of the Transportation Security Administration, not Customs.

Of the 20 largest ports, the exception that has not signed an agreement under Custom's Container Security Initiative is Kaohsiung, China, according to the BCBP. In addition, Customs has no agreements under CSI with Latin American countries, but these might be targeted in a second phase of the program announced by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge last week, Bonner said.

Name won't fly if you are David Nelson
By Tom Ramstack and Patrick Badgely
Published June 17, 2003

It's not a good time to fly for men named David Nelson.

For months, David Nelsons have been pulled off airplanes, searched, questioned by the FBI and sometimes searched again in an apparent dragnet for a terrorist by that name.

David Nelson of McLean says he has been harassed even when his wife and children have accompanied him to the airport.
"The very first time it happened to me, they just told me to wait," he said. "About five minutes later, you start to see the cops coming out of everywhere. There were dogs and everything."

Mr. Nelson said he had sent an e-mail to the Federal Aviation Administration nearly six months ago asking why he continues to be separated from others at the airport and questioned. It has happened about 15 times in the past several years. He received a response about two weeks ago, telling him that he needed to call officials with more information about himself.  "It happens every single time," he said. "In the beginning, it was a lot worse than it has been lately."

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials admit the security system is not perfect, but they hope to improve it with a new system that will assign a mathematical score to each airline passenger based on the risk they might represent. Details of the scoring system will be included in a Federal Register as soon as this week, TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said. The score will be derived from a secret algorithm. Passengers whose scores rate above a certain threshold will be singled out for more thorough searches. Others will be allowed to board planes unimpeded.

"We're not going to give the actual formula out," Mr. Turmail said.

The computer scoring is part of the TSA's CAPPS II, which stands for Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System.
It is a refinement of CAPPS I, which uses more rudimentary data to identify suspect travelers. The information includes ticket purchases with cash, and one-way tickets.

CAPPS I is the system that has ensnared any David Nelson who has tried to board a commercial airplane. David Nelson of the District has been taken aside every time he has traveled by air since September 11, except once - even though he is a Capitol Hill staffer whose tickets often are bought by the government. Sometimes he is checked multiple times. His questioning sessions with airport security personnel have reduced from about 40 minutes right after September 11 to about 10 minutes in the past couple months.

"In no case at all had my congressional staff ID helped," he said.

Several airlines have countered the problem by tying his Social Security number to his frequent-flier information, allowing airline employees to rule him out as the David Nelson sought by the FBI.

The stepped-up security often prevents him from checking in electronically, and forces him to see an attendant first and then wait for clearance from a supervisor.

When David Nelson, a telecommunications executive from Fulton, Md., went to the Baltimore-Washington International Airport last year for a Southwest Airlines flight, he was questioned and searched thrice - when he checked in, after he went through the metal detector and when handed his boarding pass. It took him about an hour extra to get on the plane.

"I don't think that's too random," he said. "They were asking, 'Where [are you] going? Did [you] have a return ticket? Do you have business? Who is your business with?' "

Mr. Nelson wishes there was an easier way for people whose names spark caution to check in.

"Ultimately, this will all be rendered moot when TSA implements the CAPPS II program," Mr. Turmail said.

The mathematical scores used for CAPPS II would assign a color code to the boarding pass of each passenger.

A green code would allow passengers to move through routine airport security checks. A yellow code mandates "secondary screening," such as waving a hand wand over passengers' bodies to detect metal objects. A red one means that the passenger is forbidden from flying.

The score would be derived at least partly from financial records, such as credit-card transactions, bank withdrawals and home mortgage payments. The names, birth dates, home addresses and phone numbers of passengers also would be stored in government computer files.

"The system remains on track and on schedule and could be in place as early as this New Year," Mr. Turmail said.
The TSA plans to use as the source for part of its database private companies that monitor financial information for customers. Other records will be taken from law-enforcement agencies, such as the FBI's "no fly list" that includes the names of terrorism suspects forbidden from flying on U.S. airlines.

Privacy advocates say CAPPS II creates too much government intrusion. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to block use of CAPPS II. The ACLU says the system discriminates against low-income persons with poor credit ratings. The TSA is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

The TSA's security efforts, nonetheless, are receiving support even from groups that sometimes protest measures by airlines that inconvenience or intrude upon passengers.

"I'm not crazy about it, but until someone can come up with a better idea, we have to go with this," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a Washington advocacy group for airline passengers. "As opposed to hijackers and terrorists getting on our airplanes, we'll take an imperfect system."

June 10, 2003

Energy uses tech tools to protect radioactive shipments

By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily

In response to the war on terrorism, the Energy Department's online tools and communications systems for facilitating global and domestic shipments of radioactive materials have expanded over the past couple of years to protect those shipments from potential threats.

"These tools were originally deployed in order to ensure safe and compliant transportation [of radioactive materials]," Steven Hamp, a program manager with Energy's National Transportation Program (NTP), said during a homeland security conference sponsored by E-Gov.

"Now, there's much more emphasis on cost efficiency and security issues," he added. "These same tools that were originally deployed for one reason are now being expanded to address the more common [security] focus of today."

One component of the Automated Transportation Management System, for example, helps Energy officials select the most responsible trucking firms for transporting radioactive materials. "You don't let just anybody transport this," Hamp said, noting that the application originally was designed as an accident-prevention tool. "We didn't want the carriers to have high accident rates."

But now the program includes background checks on all drivers, company histories and ownership, and other security measures. "There's a variety of criteria now that we've implemented ... and that information is accessible [online] at all of our shipping sites," he said.

He added that the satellite-based Transportation Tracking and Communications (TRANSCOM) system also is playing an increasing role in homeland security. That system enables officials to track, on a "near real-time basis," trucks, rails and barges that are toting radioactive materials and are equipped with global positioning systems, according to Hamp.

"There are about 450 trained users for this system across the country, both federal and state," Hamp said. "It's a very effective tool for knowing where a shipment is at any given time, and if there was an emergency, the communications aspect of this system allows a very quick interface with [state and local] first responders."

Hamp said that system, and several other NTP information and communications networks, increasingly are being used as counterterrorism measures.

Noting that Energy makes only about 4,600, or less than 1 percent, of the nation's 3 million annual shipments of radioactive material, Hamp said those tools also are available for use by other shippers.

"All the tools that we use are declassified," Hamp said, adding that many state agencies also use them. "They are open and available for others to review."

Stun Guns May be Approved for Use in Airplane Cockpits

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) submitted a classified report to Congress on 6 June that, while recognizing the use of stun guns in airplane cockpits as a viable security measure, did not support their immediate use by airlines. Both Mesa Air Group, which operates America West Express, and U.S. Airways Express appealed to TSA to approve stun guns for pilot use in a program similar to the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act, that allows trained pilots to carry hand guns in the cockpit, AP reported. United Airlines has already purchased thousands of stun guns and have trained their pilots to use them, the Washington Post reported. Explaining why TSA has deferred approval of stun guns for pilots, airplanes spokesman Robert Johnson said, "We see electrical shock devices as having the potential to contribute to our layers of security, but when it comes to deploying any weapons systems on aircraft, we owe it to the traveling public to make sure we do it safely," according to AP. Johnson said stun guns were one of several non-lethal weapons evaluated for use on airplanes, including chemical systems. The TSA still needs to determine who will be trained to use stun guns, what type of training is required, and where the guns will be stored on the plane. The Washington Post reported that other airlines are evaluating stun guns as a security tool. "This report should be seen as a positive step forward by those who submitted proposals. If the training is done right and conducted according to our standards, then it can provide another deterrent" against terrorists, Johnson said.

ANALYSIS: While TSA appears open to the use of stun guns in cockpits, some pilots and experts have expressed concern that weapons would not be an effective tool to combat terrorist activity on planes, while other say that most plane flight decks are too small to effectively wield a stun gun. Still other critics of stun guns favor the use of lethal firearms for which some 40 pilots have already been trained. John Mazor, spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association said, "Our main concern is that we don't want it to be transformed into a replacement for arming pilots."

CQ TODAY - TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE

June 10, 2003 - 5:26 p.m.
Airport Security Agency in Hot Water With Congress
By Martin Kady II, CQ Staff

Congress created the Transportation Security Administration a year and a half ago, insisting that airport security be run by the government with federal employees at the metal detectors. Things have not turned out as Congress envisioned, however, and lawmakers of both parties now criticize the TSA every chance they get.
The agency - which has been transferred to the Homeland Security Department from the Transportation Department, seems to have become Congress' favorite symbol for bureaucratic mismanagement and government waste, replacing old favorites such as the EPA and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Members of Congress fly more than most Americans, so they have to deal with airport security at least four times a week, and often more. Lawmakers such as Republican Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, who flies to and from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, see the lines of frustrated passengers first hand and sometimes experience delays themselves, as when they are forced to take off their shoes to pass through the gates.
The joke on Capitol Hill these days is that TSA stands for "Thousands Standing Around."
A number of lawmakers, including Rogers, thought Congress made a mistake in federalizing airport security to begin with, and they have expressed alarm over the TSA's growth and expense. It was pressure from appropriators that caused the agency to start reducing its workforce by 6,000, calling the process "rightsizing."
There is no indication lawmakers are contemplating more drastic steps, such as reducing the size and scope of TSA, but the frustration level is high on Capitol Hill.
At a recent hearing on the agency's hiring process and flaws in its background checks of employees, members of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which Rogers chairs, spent nearly three hours grilling TSA Administrator James M. Loy and four of the agency's contractors about the arcane procedures of checking backgrounds for screeners deployed to the country's 429 airports.
Rogers, a leading TSA critic, upbraided the agency's managers for allowing several dozen airport screeners with criminal records to slip past the background process.
"The vast majority of screeners have begun working after a mere cursory background check," Rogers said. "One mistake, or one unsavory character and you have a huge, potentially fatal situation."
But Rogers was not alone in his criticism. Martin Olav Sabo of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said the term "TSA management" was a "misnomer."

Request for Patience
Loy did his best to defend his young organization, which grew from nothing to nearly 60,000 screeners in less than a year.
"Our task began in tumultuous times," Loy said. He said the agency received 1.7 million job applications, conducted 340,000 interviews and hired 5,000 employees a week as it was started, so it was possible that a small number of unqualified employees slipped through the process."It was an enormously demanding period," he said.
However, the point of the hearing was driven home: Congress created the TSA two months after the Sept. 11 attacks and now it is going to investigate and monitor every move the agency makes.
Though Loy and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge have asked for patience, members of Congress have not given much latitude to an agency charged with preventing another hijacking.
As a result, TSA is cutting its workforce and it is more closely monitoring contracts. Also, in response to the criticism, Loy has taken a more active role in how the TSA's money is spent and how contracts are awarded by the agency. As commandant of the Coast Guard from 1998 to 2002, Loy learned to get along on a tight budget, and he has become widely respected on the Hill.

Balancing Act
Going forward, TSA officials will have to strike a difficult balance between keeping airports secure, keeping commerce flowing and keeping Congress happy with its performance on both.
"The underlying mission is that it [TSA] needs to put in security measures, but at the same time, it needs to preserve the health of the airline industry," said Gary Burns, a spokesman for John L. Mica, R-Fla., who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation. "There's concern that [TSA] is focused on institution building instead of its core mission."
When Congress created the TSA, the nation was nervous about airborne terrorists and the agency was told to hurry. It was given until the end of 2002 to have an all-federal airport security force and to have machines in place to scan all baggage.
"They have a very difficult charter," said Todd Hauptli, a lobbyist for the American Association of Airport Executives and the North American chapter of the Airports Council International. "Congress gave them some pretty unreasonable timetables [for getting started]. They had to break some china along the way."
Another reason for the stormy relationship between Congress and the agency is that some members of key House committees, including Rogers and Mica, were against federalizing airport security, so they are more suspicious of this big new government bureaucracy. The Bush administration wanted Congress to create the TSA but give the White House the option of hiring federal screeners or contracting the job out to private companies.
Critics also say the TSA has brought much of the criticism on itself. The agency was originally supposed to have about 30,000 screeners, but it grew to nearly 60,000, leading to congressional concerns about cost and size. The agency also has had major cost overruns with its private contractors.
A contract with Arlington, Va.-based NCS Pearson Government Solutions, which is a unit of London-based Pearson PLC, to set up the recruiting and hiring process of TSA was supposed to cost $104 million, but ballooned to more than $700 million. There were other problems earlier this year when NCS Pearson lost the contract to Accenture, but allowed paperwork on employee background checks to sit idle for about a month. That snafu led to a backlog in background checks for thousands of TSA screeners.
"We lost a couple months of opportunity in the process of terminating the contract with NCS Pearson and turning it over to Accenture," Loy acknowledged at the House Appropriations hearing June 3.
There also has been a series of incidents damaging to TSA's image. On one recruiting trip earlier this year, NCS Pearson employees under a contract with TSA stayed several weeks at the luxury Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa near Telluride, Colo.
In another incident last year, veteran Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., was nearly strip-searched when his artificial hip set off airport metal detectors.
"This is a service that Congress utilizes disproportionately, so they are going to come under more scrutiny," said Stephen Van Beek, senior vice president at the Airports Council International. "Rogers and Mica are going to be pretty tough guys from the oversight perspective, and that's a good thing."

Some Defenders in Congress
However, the TSA, and especially Loy, have some defenders, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, whose state has two major airline hubs in Dallas and Houston.
"Given a tough assignment and limited resources, Admiral Loy and TSA have done a great job," Hutchison said. "I hope Congress will continue to support TSA to help ensure the security of the American people."
A TSA spokeswoman said that the agency has a decent relationship with Congress and is trying to respond to the many demands for oversight hearings.
"We have a really good communication with Congress," Heather Rosenker said. "Members of Congress do their job and we do ours. There's a healthy give and take."
What makes TSA's role in Washington unique, Rosenker said, is that the agency has been under scrutiny from day one.
"We've been in the limelight," she said. "We've grown under the eyes of everybody. We get graded by the traveling public every hour of every day."

Undercover Airport Security Test Results Worry Officials

Industry and government officials worry about the success of undercover agents who continue to successfully pass mock bombs and weapons past airport security screeners despite $5 billion in federal funds earmarked for aviation security, according to a 1 June Houston Chronicle report. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials did not elaborate any details of the undercover security tests, but government and industry officials say they are disappointed with the results. Rep. John Mica (R-Florida), who sits on the House aviation subcommittee said, "If the tests are tougher and the screeners are still failing, then we've got a problem." Mica requested the General Accounting Office (GAO) to investigate the performance of TSA screeners and the undercover testing program. TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said the agents' "job now is to go out and break the system, so we can improve the system." A government official privy to the test results said that "If you look at it [the results] on strictly percentage terms, it's not better [than before 11 September]." However, the official did acknowledge that "the testing is not easy." Gerald Dillingham, director of aviation issues for the GAO, said he does not know how the GAO investigation will unfold, but stated that "the target is harder than it was before." He also said "you could spend the whole Gross National Product on trying to secure aviation, and you're still going to have gaps."

ANALYSIS: While some criticize the progress of aviation security since 11 September, Delta Air Lines CEO Leo Mullin said that U.S. airlines will push Congress to "extend government responsibility" for funding aviation security costs and will ask for lower industry taxes, according to a 2 June Reuters report. Mullins acknowledged that it would be optimal "to have a private sector solution to the terrible challenges we face," but that the industry needs the government to help subsidize needed security costs and to lower taxes before the airlines "have a shot" at recovery. Mullins did not indicate whether the airline industry is looking for permanent assistance or temporary support.

Cargo on Passenger Flights - Aviation Security's Achilles Heel

World aviation security is nearing the completion of an 18-month rush job to comprehensively upgrade airport security. This is a project that has employed an "army" of over 80,000 screeners worldwide (50,000 in the U.S.), and involved the installation of billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art screening equipment.
This is a remarkable accomplishment. But studies by Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC), an independent San Jose California based homeland security market and technology research organization, concluded that this wall of aviation security has a gaping hole in the form of unscreened air cargo shipments on scheduled passenger flights - a hole that may seriously compromise the safety of air travelers and the economic health of the aviation industry.
Air cargo encompasses transported goods, such as freight, express cargo, and airmail.
Although the public is largely unaware of this, the situation is by no means a secret to the government and to the aviation industry, as can be seen from the following two unclassified quotes:
"At first glance, cargo aviation may not seem like a security problem, but in fact, therein lies one of the most serious security lapses in our fight against terrorism. For example, about 60 percent of all U.S. air cargo flies on passenger planes, but only about five percent is required to undergo screening for dangerous items." Source: Capt. Bob Miller, President, Independent Pilots Association; January 2003
"Neither FAA nor TSA has developed a comprehensive plan for air-cargo security as recommended by the Gore Commission, which would provide a first step toward meeting the requirement of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act to have a system in place to ensure the security of cargo. TSA officials have told us that the agency intends to issue a long-term plan for cargo security, but they were unsure when that would occur." Source: GAO; December 2002
The facts are simple:
Current worldwide air cargo traffic is 7 million tons per year. It is projected to grow at an average of 6.4% per year.
The public incorrectly assumes that air-cargo is a secondary risk issue, since "only“ dedicated cargo flights are exposed to the risk.
In reality, about 50% of passenger flight "payload“ is largely unscreened air cargo.
According to a recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO), less than 5% of this cargo is currently screened for any threat.
Cargo is an easy and accessible platform for many types of terrorism.
Placing and activating explosives in cargo does not require sophistication on the part of terrorists and does not require suicide terrorism.
Cargo can be used to either transfer or use weapons of mass destruction explosives and conventional weapons.
In addition to the safety and security aspects of unscreened air cargo, the economic impact of an air cargo terror event, successful or not, may increase the economic woes of the already hurting airline industry and national economies. The collateral economic damage of an air-cargo terror event may exceed $500B.
Only a handful of airlines and governments (e.g. Israel’s EL-AL & Arkia) have implemented an effective and comprehensive air cargo screening infrastructure

"None of the information published here is classified, nor is it unknown to the industry and government“ said Doron Pely, HSRC's Editor-in-Chief. Still, we are concerned about the lack of focus and action and believe that only public awareness and increased discussion will lead to faster action to mitigate these threats.
One of the more vulnerable areas of air cargo is airmail. More than 60% of U.S. airmail traffic (letters and packages) is shipped on board passenger flights.

Cargo Screening Technologies
Cargo screening technology is not a new industry. In fact, screening systems have existed for about 30 years (since 1972). Technologies include X-ray imaging, tomography, explosives trace detection, K9, neutron radiography (not yet in use), and linear accelerator imaging.
"We are at a critical crossroad“ said Dan Inbar, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Homeland Security Research Corp. "No single presently-available technology provides "silver bullet“ performance. We cannot delay the deployment of 100% screening for passenger flight cargo. In the short term, we should probably adopt EL-Al's strategy, which will require close intelligence sharing between the FBI and TSA, trusted shipper program, and an array of available technologies to screen 100% of cargo shipped on passenger flights. Even if development programs were greatly accelerated, it is not acceptable to await long term solutions such as cost-effective neutron radiography and coherent x-ray fused with other sensors."
What can be done?
HSRC's research concluded that a cost-effective solution requires accelerated cooperation between legislators, the screening and the air-cargo industries.
Legislators should introduce and pass legislation that will mandate immediate infrastructure deployment to provide 100% cargo screening on passenger flights, paid for by a security fee for airborne cargo screening.
Screening Systems Industry must rush to market new "fused technologies“ systems that would automate cost-effective cargo screening.
Air Cargo Industry should encourage such new legislation. The cargo industry should achieve a positive ROI through the cargo security fees.
"Not much progress is likely to happen without legislative/regulatory prodding. Unless Congress mandates that regulating bodies (e.g. TSA IATA, EU) impose specific security requirements, cargo security standards will evolve at an unacceptably slow rate“, said Johnathan Tal, President of Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC). “It seems that only public and media pressure will accelerate the process. This is why we decided to bring this issue to light.“
Change will not occur until there is a realization that the existing unbalanced approach of spending many billions on "100% screening“ for the checked luggage half of passenger aircraft loads while spending only a few hundreds of millions to screen just 5% of the remaining half of passenger aircraft loads provides little real security.
To deal with the costs of implementing air cargo security, HSRC recommends a move toward a nominal surcharge fee of $0.25 for a FedEx-size envelope, increasing gradually up to $40 for very large air cargo shipments. This fee will not only mitigate air cargo terror but will provide "terror insurance“ and become a source of revenue to the airline industry
Only when measures such as these are implemented will the traveling public actually be flying in much safer skies.
For comments and information, please contact: dpely@hsrc.biz

About Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC)
Homeland Security Research Corporation (HSRC) is an independent, San Jose, CA based research organization dedicated solely to studying, analyzing and reporting about the homeland security industry and its products, providing the airport, seaport, enterprise and government security professionals with premium market information, analysis and forecasts.
HSRC’s knowledge products include industry and market analysis, product comparison reports, custom research, consulting services and a newsletter.
http://www.hsrc.biz
Tel: 408-295-4000

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 2 June:

Screener Cuts Not Affecting Airport Security, TSA Says

The Transportation Security Administration has eliminated 3,000 positions from its workforce of airport security screeners, but the cuts have had no impact on security or passenger wait times, the agency claimed Friday. An internal TSA study of airports found average passenger wait times in April and May remained well below the agency’s goal of 10 minutes per traveler, even as the cuts were being made, a TSA statement said. The agency began cutting positions on April 1, and plans to cut 3,000 more by Sept. 30. As evidence that security hasn’t suffered, the agency said screeners intercepted 460,000 banned items in April, the fourth-highest monthly total since federal screeners started working in the nation’s airports in February 2002. “By ensuring that security check points are fully staffed during peak times we have been able to make staffing adjustments that largely have gone unnoticed by travelers,” Loy said in the statement. The cuts are coming through attrition, dismissals for poor job performance, legal violations and other inappropriate behavior, and by changing some full-time positions to part-time. Several lawmakers have protested cuts at airports in their districts. -Jeremy Torobin

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY
May 30, 2003 - 7:37 p.m.

Patty Murray 'Holds' OMB Nominee to Force Administration Hand on Port Security
By Jeremy Torobin, CQ Staff Writer

In mid-May, Transportation Security Administration chief James M. Loy told the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee his agency wanted to use $28 million of the $58 million Congress had set aside for a new port-security project to cover an aviation security budget shortfall.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the subcommittee, was not happy with that news.
Murray is the Senate's chief supporter of the port security project, known as Operation Safe Commerce. The Seattle-Tacoma port in her home state is one of the busiest in the nation and was selected to participate in the pilot phase of the project, in which satellites would be used to track cargo containers from their points of origin to the ports of New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles-Long Beach and Seattle-Tacoma.
If TSA is short on cash, Murray argued, it's because the administration and its Republican allies in Congress chose to underfund it.
Within a day of the hearing, Murray turned to a tried-and-true Senate tactic in battles with the executive branch - she placed a "hold" on a key Bush administration nomination, effectively blocking the nominee's confirmation until the administration accedes to her demands.
The nominee, in this case, is former White House personnel chief Clay Johnson, the president's pick to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Lest there be any question at the White House about how seriously she takes port security, Murray followed up with a strongly worded letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge objecting to the TSA's plans.
"I have no intention of watching your agency divert funds that are critically needed to ensure the security of our trade lanes in order to make up for the administration's irresponsible actions in this area," she said.
Murray is vowing to keep the hold on Johnson's nomination until the administration agrees to spend the entire $58 million on the port security program.
The strategy has the administration's attention. Loy and other officials have been in touch with Murray in an effort to persuade her to drop the hold, Murray aides and an OMB official said.
According to Murray spokesman Todd Webster, the senator is worried that a bomb hidden in an unchecked container could detonate in Seattle's downtown port. And, he said, she has no plans to negotiate.
"The bottom line is this is a vulnerability, that [Operation Safe Commerce] is an initiative that is important to protecting our ports, and that Sen. Murray's going to stand firm on," Webster said.
TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said the agency's request to reprogram the port security funding for aviation programs is not written in stone. But he said the agency needs to find money somewhere to pay for aviation-related priorities, including a pilot project at five airports in which TSA trains and oversees private screeners.
"The real challenge is: How do we pay for the congressionally mandated private screening pilot project? How do we pay for the work and the equipment that our screeners are using at airports today, and at the same time how do we provide the highest level of funding for port security?" Turmail said.
While Turmail acknowledged TSA is juggling "a wide range of pressing security issues" with "very limited resources," he noted the agency plans to spend $265 million on port security this year.

May 28, 2003
Homeland Security weighs airliner anti-missile system
By David Morris, CongressDaily

At the urging of some members of Congress, the Homeland Security Department is considering a $10 billion project to protect the nation's commercial jet fleet from shoulder-fired missiles, but with the administration already cutting back on some security measures to save money, it is not clear whether the effort will survive the budgeting process.
The department included airliner protection in a list of several dozen research and development projects for which it is seeking proposals from private industry and told Sen. Charles Schumer and Rep. Steve Israel, both D-N.Y., that it will ask two companies to build prototypes based on systems now in use to protect military aircraft.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., also is supporting the effort to protect commercial airliners.
While a department spokesman said it is too early to talk about the potential cost and where the money would come from, Schumer said the administration must move quickly before terrorists, who fired a shoulder-launched missile at a commercial jet last fall in Kenya, set their sights on U.S. planes.
"You don't need to be a counterterrorism expert to know that if a group like al Qaeda tried this once, they're going to try it again if we leave our planes unprotected," Schumer told reporters last week. Schumer proposed paying for the project by transferring money from missile-defense research, a move that Republicans said they would oppose.
A spokesman for Israel told CongressDaily the lawmaker would like to see the Homeland Security Department move quickly "before an attack happens." But the mere fact that the department included the issue in its research and development wish list represents a change in the administration's position, the spokesman noted.
In December, when Israel and other legislators first asked President Bush to budget funds for the missile-protection system, "We never got a formal response," the spokesman said. That prompted Israel, Schumer and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to push for the department to produce a report about the potential threat as part of the supplemental spending bill approved in April.
In a separate report released in February, the Congressional Research Service said thousands of shoulder-fired missiles are unaccounted for, are available at a relatively low price on the black market, and, because of their size, are easy to conceal.
Aircraft are most vulnerable to attack as they take off and land because they are on predictable routes and within the weapon's effective altitude of 15,000 feet. While military aircraft use infrared devices and flares to confuse the heat-seeking missiles, the Pentagon and others say flares would not be useful for commercial jets because of fires and other problems they might cause in populated areas.
According to the CRS report, the costs of installing protective systems would range from $1 million to $3 million for each of the approximately 6,800 commercial airliners in the United States. Schumer estimated the cost at up to $1.5 million per plane, or $7 billion to $10 billion. "The cost is significant, but not prohibitive," said Israel's spokesman.
While some members of Congress have focused heavily on the aircraft protection system, it is one of about 50 projects on the Homeland Security Department's wish list, many of which will probably compete for limited funds in the fiscal 2004 budget. The department can fund about $30 million of research and development projects, with a total of $200 million available from the administration's interagency technical support working group.

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Update," 23 May:

Rail Shipments of Hazardous Material at Risk, GAO Says

The federal government has not developed a plan to specifically address the security of hazardous materials shipped by rail, the General Accounting Office said in a report published May 23. In the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, the railroad and chemical industries developed their own approaches to review and address security risks. And while the Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Security Administration has started developing a security plan covering all modes of transportation, it “has not yet developed specific plans to address the security of individual surface transportation modes, including rail.” That plan, GAO added, “is needed to determine the adequacy of security measures already in place to protect rail shipments and identify security gaps.” According to the report, Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged that no specific plan for rail security exists, but they did say they have taken some steps to increase the security of hazardous material rail shipments since Sept. 11. - Chris Logan
• Read the GAO report http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03435.pdf

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 23 May:

Hearing Scuttled on TSA Background Checks

The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee cancelled a Thursday hearing on the Transportation Security Administration’s background checks of airport screeners because the agency was unprepared to testify, according to David R. Obey, the House’s top Democratic appropriator. TSA chief James M. Loy had been scheduled to testify before the panel, chaired by TSA nemesis Harold Rogers of Kentucky, about revelations last week that the agency hired thousands of airport security screeners with criminal backgrounds. TSA’s defenders counter that employee background checks were rushed to meet a congressional hiring deadline last year. "Over and over again, we hear of this Administration's mismanagement of TSA contracts,” Obey said in a statement. “They have not been properly overseen and costs have spiraled out of control. It appears that we are not buying additional security ... we are buying waste." Homeland chief Tom Ridge told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security May 20 that DHS is now scrambling to vet all screeners who weren’t thoroughly checked previously and may take disciplinary action against private contractors who were in charge of the employee screening in the TSA’s early months. Department of Homeland Security officials were unavailable for comment. -Jeremy Torobin

Senators oppose funding cuts for port security initiative

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) on 20 May became the second lawmaker to send the Bush administration a letter cautioning against cutting funding for a cargo and port security initiative run by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA chief James Loy said in 13 May testimony before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee that due to a "structural shortfall" that has left a "billion-dollar hole" in his agency's budget, some or all of the $58 million Congress appropriated in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 for Operation Safe Commerce (OSC) could be redirected. Following that testimony, Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) sent a letter on 16 May letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge that said she had "no intention of quietly watching your agency divert funds that are critically needed to ensure the security of our trade lanes in order to make up for the Administration's irresponsible actions in this area." In his letter, Schumer said the elimination of OSC "would seriously undermine the baby steps we are taking to ensure that dangerous materials for devices such as dirty bombs do not enter the United States through our ports."

ANALYSIS: Operation Safe Commerce "began in New England as a local public-private partnership where federal, state and local law enforcement entities and key private sector entities combined efforts to design, develop, and implement a means to test available technology and procedures in order to develop secure supply chains," according to TSA. Under OSC, grants are to be distributed to the ports of New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles/Long Beach, and Seattle/Tacoma to "identify specific supply chains along particular trade routes and analyze every aspect of the supply chain, from packaging to delivery, for vulnerabilities." Based on these assessments, the ports would "propose plans to improve security throughout the supply chain" and test the proposed solutions "in an operating environment."

Money to strengthen port security may be redirected

Associated Press

WASHINGTON--A $58 million program, approved almost a year ago to strengthen security at the nation's three largest seaports, has been delayed as officials consider redirecting the money to other areas of the budget.
The project, which would track cargo containers entering ports serving New York, Los Angeles and Seattle, may be curtailed because of cost overruns in other areas, the head of the Transportation Security Administration says.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, the agency's administrator, told a Senate panel that the program, Operation Safe Commerce, may become a casualty of a "structural shortfall" that has left "a billion-dollar hole" in the agency's budget.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who championed the program, fired off a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, expressing dismay that budget mismanagement was placing port security at risk.
"I have no intention of watching your agency divert funds that are critically needed to ensure the security of our trade lanes in order to make up for the administration's irresponsible actions in this area," Murray wrote.
Murray also scolded Loy last Tuesday at a meeting of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.
"If you are delaying the release of this money simply so that you can divert it to other causes, that is unacceptable," Murray told Loy. "I do not want to see any of that money diverted. This is what Congress said it was to be spent for."
Murray said U.S. ports remain vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
"An incident at one of our ports would have a devastating impact on our safety and the U.S. economy," she said.
Operation Safe Commerce would spend $58 million to beef up security at the nation's three largest regional ports: New York and northern New Jersey; Los Angeles-Long Beach; and Seattle-Tacoma. Together, the three port areas take in about 75 percent of cargo containers entering the United States every year.

Partnership will seek global standards for container security

The International Standards Organization (ISO) and the Strategic Council on Security Technology (SCST) will work together on the ISO's international pilot program to develop standards to improve the security and efficiency of ocean container transportation, Business Wire reported on 14 May. ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden and SCST Chairman Gen. John Coburn (USA, ret.) signed a memorandum of understanding on 31 March making the ISO a partner in the council-sponsored Smart and Secure Tradelanes (SST) initiative. The ISO's Technical Committee on Ships and Marine Technology (ISO/TC 8) will work with SST partners to lay the foundation for the committee's pilot program to create international standards for container security. According to ISO/TC 8 Chair Capt. Charles Piersall, the program will: 1) seek to define the physical security of cargo and transportation assets, the structure of information systems, associated processes, and international business practices; 2) produce data, process, and technology solutions supporting intermodal security and effectiveness by providing confidence in container status, location, and history; and 3) preserve company proprietary information and minimizing commercial disruption, an SCST press statement said.

ANALYSIS: The SST initiative has been implemented in over a dozen of the world's busiest tradelanes, and should benefit greatly from the ISO-SCST partnership. According to the SCST, "ISO selected [SST] for the basis for its programme because of the proven track record, global scope and great promise of the initiative to influence how technology is deployed to enhance the security and visibility [of] cargo shipments within and between countries." The ISO's participation in SST "will be key to both accelerate the standards development process and to forming a working industry-government coalition to implement the standards," Piersall said. The ISO committee will eventually make recommendations on new procedures for maintenance and transfer of cargo custody, new data that needs to be collected, means by which current and additional data is collected and transmitted, sensor interfaces and modes of data communications, the means to search or access the data on an as-needed and as-authorized basis, and training requirements, according to the SCST.

Hong Kong joins Container Security Initiative

Customs officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will begin screening cargo bound for the U.S. from the port of Hong Kong on 12 May, under the Container Security Initiative (CSI). CBP "has deployed a team of officers to be stationed at the port...Hong Kong Customs officials, working with CBP officers, will be responsible for screening any containers identified as a potential terrorist risk," CBP said. Hong Kong agreed in a 2002 Declaration of Principles to study the implementation of CSI, and is the 18th of 20 'mega-ports' targeted for CSI participation that has signed on. Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Henry Tang, said, "Following discussions with the local exporting and shipping communities as well as with U.S. Customs, we are now in a position to start a CSI pilot scheme on May 12," Lloyd's List reported.

ANALYSIS: Hong Kong shipped 560,000 sea cargo containers to the U.S., according to CBP, making it the largest port in the world in those terms. CBP plans to continue to expand the CSI program to all the 'mega-ports' as well as smaller ports over coming years. Asa Hutchinson, DHS under secretary for border and transportation security said in 6 May testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee that expansion of CSI and other programs were reasons for a requested 33 percent increase in budget, to $6.7 billion in FY 2004, CongressDaily reported. The increase in funding would "provide greater accountability through an integrated border and transportation security organization, create smart borders that are more secure, and increase the security of international shipping containers," Hutchinson said.

Posted on Thu, May. 08, 2003

Latest in passport screeners links to criminal databases

BY D.E. LéGER
dleger@herald.com

Criminals and holders of fake passports, beware.
Virgin Atlantic announced this week that, by midmonth, it would begin testing at Miami International Airport security software designed to help its passenger screeners perform quick scans for possible forgery or passport tampering.
Called the iA-thenticate platform, the system will also store and send the scanned image to a database from which Virgin Atlantic staff can cross-reference a passenger's name with criminal databases, in coordination with British and U.S. authorities.
Should a name or passport raise a red flag, Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman Wendy Buck said, the staff would alert airport security.
''I can't give you details,'' she said, ``but our staff would follow routine security measures.''
For the legitimate passenger, Buck said, the traveling experience will remain the same: Walk up to the counter and hand over your passport, and, about four seconds later, you should be free to board.
Dalton Hall, senior director of sales at Imaging Automation, the New Hampshire-based company that introduced the ID-screening software in 1999, said there were approximately 2,000 such devices in use worldwide.
Customers, he said, include the governments of Canada, the Dominican Republic, Finland and Sweden and various banks and airports, including Logan in Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth International.
The price ranges from $6,000 to $12,000.
''The high-end system,'' Hall noted, ``allows users to connect to the Internet.''
The system's adoption by Virgin Atlantic is the fruit of conversations with the British Home Office -- the British version of the U.S. Homeland Security Department -- over the past year on how to combat the danger of fake and stolen passports and, of course, terrorists.
Virgin became the first long-haul carrier to use the document screeners when it launched them in London's Heathrow Airport last week.
The scanner, according to Hall, uses ultraviolet light, among other things, to spot inaccuracies in such documents as passports and drivers' licenses.
''A lot of people who try to forge documents,'' he said, ``are not aware of the hundreds of hidden security features in those documents.''

Hazardous materials transportation security tightened

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Department of Transportation (DoT) issued an interim final rule on 2 May "requiring background checks on commercial drivers certified to transport hazardous items." The new regulations will prevent state transportation agencies from renewing hazmat certifications of commercial truck drivers that pose security risks. The interim final rule, issued under the 2001 PATRIOT Act, will require 3.5 million truck drivers with hazardous materials endorsements to "undergo a routine background records check that includes a review of criminal, immigration and FBI records." According to DoT, "any applicant with a conviction...for certain violent felonies over the past seven years, or has been found mentally incompetent, will not be permitted to obtain or renew the hazardous materials endorsement."

ANALYSIS: Groups representing commercial truck drivers lobbied to ensure the new background check requirement would not place too heavy a burden on the industry. According to the LA Times, "the road to implementing the law has been a bumpy one, marked by a feud between regulators over the post-Sept. 11 powers, and lobbying by the trucking industry, which objected to the idea of the government digging into drivers' personal lives." Industry groups warned the regulations could cause significant numbers of drivers to lose their hazmat endorsement. The administration signaled it would work to prevent that outcome. "Our intent is not to put anyone out of work," TSA spokesman Brian Turmail told AP. The new rules allow for an appeal by drivers who "prove that they are rehabilitated and capable of transporting Hazmat safely."

From the 2 May 03 edition of the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily:"

Customs Tightening Screws on Foreign Cargo

Ocean cargo carriers are about to feel new pressure from the new U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Service (CBP) to submit detailed information on their payloads 24 hours before loading up in a foreign port. Since