The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (or TWIC) program is a

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

and

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

initiative in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The TWIC program provides a tamper-resistant biometric credential to maritime workers requiring unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities, outer continental shelf facilities, certain manufacturing facilities, and vessels regulated under the

Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) () is an Act of Congress enacted by the 107th United States Congress to address port and waterway security. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 25, 2002. Thi ...

, or MTSA, and all U.S. Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners. As of May 2014, there were 2,999,058 people enrolled in the program. Those seeking unescorted access to secure areas aboard affected vessels, and all Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners, must obtain a TWIC. The new measures were fully implemented on April 15, 2009. To obtain a TWIC, an individual must provide biographic and biometric information such as fingerprints, sit for a digital photograph and successfully pass a security

threat assessment Threat assessment is the practice of determining the credibility and seriousness of a potential threat, as well as the probability that the threat will become a reality. Threat assessment is separate to the more established practice of violence-r ...

conducted by TSA. The issued card contains a computer chip, known as an Integrated Circuit Chip ( ICC), which stores the holder's information and biometric data. The chip can be read by inserting it into a reader or holding it near a "contactless" reader. There is also a

magnetic strip The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

(similar to a credit card) and a

linear barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly referred to as linear or o ...

on the back as alternative reading methods.

Maritime sector

While TWIC may be implemented across other transportation modes in the future, the TWIC Final Rule, published in the Federal Register on January 25, 2007, sets forth regulatory requirements to implement this program in the maritime mode first. The program's goals are: *Positively identify authorized individuals who require unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system; *Determine the eligibility of an individual to be authorized unescorted access to secure areas of the maritime transportation system; *Enhance security by ensuring that unauthorized individuals are denied unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system; and, *Identify individuals who fail to maintain their eligibility qualifications after being permitted unescorted access to secure areas of the nation's maritime transportation system and revoke the individual's permissions. Workers required to obtain a TWIC include credentialed merchant mariners, port facility employees, longshoremen,

truck drivers A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

, and others requiring unescorted access to secure areas of security-regulated maritime facilities and vessels.

Other transportation sectors

In addition to the maritime sector, the TWIC may be required in the future for other security-sensitive transportation sectors, such as airports, railroads, chemical plants, and refineries. One chemical manufacturing industry representative says it's only a matter of time before the entire manufacturing industry requires workers to have TWIC cards.

Security threat assessment

Each TWIC applicant undergoes a security

. The assessment considers

conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is cons ...

s, arrest warrants, and

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...

s for certain offenses and other background information. In the case of arrests that do not indicate the disposition, the applicant will be notified by TSA, and the applicant must provide TSA with written proof that the arrest did not result in conviction for the offense.

Permanent disqualifying criminal offenses

An applicant is permanently disqualified if convicted of the following felonies:

Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

, sedition,

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

,As defined in a crime involving a transportation security incident,A transportation security incident is a security incident resulting in a significant loss of life, environmental damage, transportation system disruption, or economic disruption in a particular area, as defined in 46 U.S.C. 70101. The term "economic disruption" does not include a work stoppage or other employee-related action not related to terrorism and resulting from an employer-employee dispute. improper transportation of hazardous material, unlawful acts involving explosives, murder,

bomb threat A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists. History Bomb threat ...

s, serious racketeering offenses, or attempts/

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...

to commit these acts.

Interim disqualifiying criminal offenses

An applicant is disqualified for a period of time for other convictions, if the applicant was convicted in the past seven years and/or released from incarceration resulting from conviction within the past five years, for: Unlawful acts involving firearms,

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

, fraud (does not include

welfare fraud Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

and passing bad checks), bribery, smuggling, immigration violations, drug distribution/importation, arson, kidnapping,

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

, assault with intent to kill, robbery, fraudulent entry into a seaport, and lesser racketeering offenses, or attempts/conspiracy to commit these acts.

Other parts of the security threat assessment

In addition to criminal offenses, TSA will determine immigration status and look for records indicating mental

incapacity Legal capacity is a quality denoting either the legal aptitude of a person to have rights and liabilities (in this sense also called transaction capacity), or altogether the personhood itself in regard to an entity other than a natural person ( ...

. TSA may conduct other analyses, including searching international databases, terrorist watchlists, National Crime Information Center (NCIC), other databases, and may search to see if other extensive foreign or domestic criminal convictions exist.

Issues

Loopholes

Due to U.S.C.G. Policy, persons can still gain access to facilities and vessels without possessing a TWIC card, for up to 30 days, if their employer applies to the TSA (Online) for such a temporary exemption. The employee then carries a print out of their approval along with State issued ID such as a drivers license. There is no provision for validation of this printed document but the employee is required to have "Escorted Access" which allows entry but prohibits them from certain areas without another employee escorting them.

Rollout

The Government Accountability Office has said the TWIC program has suffered from lack of oversight and poor coordination. Delays regarding developing and implementing card reader technology have meant that for the initial period TWIC cards will not be used in card readers. Additionally, a number of organizations have complained at the financial impact the program will have on already highly regulated industries. As of Jan 2016 vessels and waterfront facilities were still not required to possess TWIC card readers due to delays in the rule making for the devices and therefore a person with an invalidated TWIC card may still be able to gain un-escorted access to facilities and vessels due to an inability to verify cards on site.

Delays to applicants

According to a report by the National Employment Law Project, some TWIC applicants have experienced significant delays. Specifically, many applicants that receive initial denials based on background check returns face waits of six to eight months to complete the process to obtain a TWIC. Over 10,000 applicants out of the 1.5 million port workers could not work for an average of 69 days because they had not obtained a TWIC by the implementation date.

Faulty TWIC Cards

In November, 2011, the TSA announced that approximately 26,000 TWIC cards issued before April 5, 2011 would not work when inserted into a TWIC card reader. Each card contains a Federal Agency Smart Credential Number (FASC-N), which uniquely identifies each card in Federal databases, encoded on its ICC. On the faulty cards, the FASC-N has not been fully encoded, causing the readers to view the card as an invalid card. The agency has posted a list online with the serial numbers of affected cards. They say that they will replace the faulty cards at no further cost to the affected individual.

Criticism

Critics assert that the program has cost over $420 million and has little to show for it. A 2013 GAO report found the TWIC card reader pilot program results to be unreliable and questioned "the program's premise and effectiveness in enhancing security." Rep. John Mica (R-FL) has called them "at best no more useful than library cards.

Legislation

On July 28, 2014, the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

passed the Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act (H.R. 3202; 113th Congress), a bill that would direct the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

to assess the effectiveness of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program. The bill would require an independent assessment of how well the TWIC program improves security and reduces risks at the facilities and vessels it is responsible for. The evaluation would include a cost-benefit analysis and information on alternate technologies that could be used.

Notes

References

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External links

TWIC Program website by TSAPre-enrollment pageTWIC Implementation in the Maritime Sector Final Rule, January 25, 2007U.S. Coast Guard's NVIC 03-07, "Guidance for the implementation of the TWIC Program in the maritime sector"Threat, Risk, and Vulnerability: The Future of the TWIC Program: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security of the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, June 18, 2013
Law enforcement in the United States United States Merchant Marine Identity documents of the United States United States Coast Guard Transportation Security Administration Transportation in the United States 2002 establishments in the United States Aftermath of the September 11 attacks