TSA Reinvolvement with Registered Traveler Proposed
Michael Fabey and Dennis Schaal, Travel Weekly, 5/11/2009
The survival of Registered Traveler, the expedited security-screening program for road warriors, appeared to hang in the balance last week as a political struggle played out between the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has washed its hands of the initiative, and Congress, where some members seem determined to keep it alive.
The back-and-forth began on April 23 with a report by the Congressional Research Service that seemed to support the TSA's view. Its assessment stated that Registered Traveler's "future now seems uncertain as the benefits ... appear to be much more limited than originally anticipated."
But last week, two members of Congress, in an attempt to reinvigorate the program, introduced an amendment to H.R. 2200, a TSA reauthorization bill, mandating that the TSA evaluate how Registered Traveler can be incorporated into "risk-based aviation security operations."
Registered Traveler, which was intended to offer frequent travelers a fast-lane program to expedite security checks, is currently in operation at 21 airports throughout the U.S. However, it was relegated to little more than a VIP lane after the TSA announced that federal agents would no longer undertake the background checks of Registered Traveler applicants.
The amendment, introduced on May 5 by Homeland Security Committee Chairwoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-Calif.), was immediately lauded by the National Business Travel Association (NBTA), which has long supported the concept, and Verified Identity Pass, the vendor that currently dominates the market for Registered Traveler expedited lanes and memberships.
NBTA said that the amendment would reinstate TSA background checks and security threat assessments for registrants and expressed hope that it would revitalize the program, despite strong suggestions in the Congressional Research Service report that the program could be heading toward cancellation.
"While the Registered Traveler program is now available to all airports, its future now seems uncertain as the benefits … appear to be much more limited than originally anticipated," the Congressional Research Service observed in its report, titled "Airport Passenger Screening: Background and Issues for Congress."
The Congressional Research Service, which provides research reports to Congress to help lawmakers assess government programs and institutions, said that Registered Traveler began as a trial program at 19 airports and became available last year to any airport that requests it.
Charles Simon, senior vice president of public policy for Verified Identity Pass, which has registered 200,000 travelers under its Clear brand, said he thought the amendment would take the program "to the next level." Simon argued that it would enhance aviation security and enable Registered Traveler to do a better job of facilitating travel by the nation's most frequent travelers.
Registered Traveler was originally implemented as a public-private partnership in lieu of a mandatory national ID. Volunteer participants submitted background information for vetting along with biometric data for a background check that was to have been coordinated by the TSA. The passengers then would receive biometric identity cards from private vendors; the cards would be used to speed them through special security lanes.
‘Not advanced enough'
But the Congressional Research Service noted that the TSA has since dropped the background check process, arguing that Registered Traveler is strictly a private-sector enterprise. So, while the vendors issue the cards and verify the identities of their registrants at special screening checkpoints, the TSA screens them further.
"Questions also remain regarding how hassle-free Registered Traveler security lines are and how much time Registered Traveler participants really save at security checkpoints," the Congressional Research Service reported.
The report continued: "The TSA has largely concluded that current technologies are not advanced enough to offer Registered Traveler participants an opportunity to bypass minimal screening requirements, because the required background checks do not eliminate the possibility that a Registered Traveler participant could take hostile action threatening aviation security."
TSA determined that the Registered Traveler security process was largely redundant with terrorist watchlist checks that are conducted on all passengers each time they fly. In addition, it found that other elements of the background check "are not core elements in determining threats," the Congressional Research Service said.
Verified Identity Pass briefly suspended enrollments last summer after a laptop containing unencrypted data from about 33,000 applicants was reported missing.
The suspension was quickly lifted after the laptop was recovered, and the company immediately started to encrypt all personal data of registrants.
Simon said the Congressional Research Service statements on the laptop were "accurate as far as it went," but he added that there had never been any breach of private information.
Even so, the Congressional Research Service asserted, "The incident and the potential threat of data breaches, however, raise considerable questions about the protection of private information. Security breaches such as this may cause potential applicants to reconsider whether the potential benefits of moving more quickly through security lines with fewer hassles are worth the risk of potential identity theft."
As TSA moves forward with Registered Traveler, "The airline industry, which once backed this program as a means to reduce hassles for frequent fliers, now characterizes the manner in which it is being implemented as having limited and questionable benefit," said the Congressional Research Service.