A House subcommittee on Tuesday approved three border security-related bills, including one calling for a third party assessment of a transportation worker credential program and another that would formally authorize the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency.
The Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act (H.R. 3202), which passed the House Homeland Security Border and Maritime Security panel by voice vote, requires DHS to submit a comprehensive report on the effectiveness of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program within one year of enactment of the bill. The report would be completed by a national laboratory or a maritime security university based center within the DHS Centers of Excellence Network.
“At this point, I believe it is still an open question as to what degree TWIC enhances maritime security,” Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee and a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement. The TWIC bill was introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who stated that “The required assessment should give Congress the information it needs to determine how best to proceed with the program.”
DHS began enrolling maritime port and transportation workers in the TWIC program about six years ago to better control access to secure areas of port. The program puts workers through a background check before issuing them a biometric-enabled smart card that for the most part is being used as a flash pass while the department decides how to proceed with reader deployments to automate access control.
The 25-page United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act (H.R. 3846), which also passed the panel by voice vote, would be the first time Congress authorizes the border security agency since DHS was stood up in 2003. The bill essentially codifies existing roles and responsibilities, such as establishing a commissioner as head of CBP and delineating the agency’s offices and missions, such as facilitating the flow of travel and trade into and out of the United States while interdicting persons and goods illegally entering or exiting the country.
Miller, who introduced the bill, stated that the proposed legislation updates the Homeland Security Act, which passed Congress in 2002, would “update the statute to reflect the current security missions of the department within CBP, which have significantly evolved over time.”
The panel also approved by voice vote a bill that sets conditions under which DHS can establish pre-clearance facilities and provide customs services outside of the United States. The Preclearance Authorization Act of 2014 (H.R. 3488), introduced by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), would require among other things a homeland security threat assessment for countries in which pre-clearance operations are planned to be established and that a foreign government’s screening procedures for people and products entering the United States meet or exceed U.S. screening requirements.
Meehan’s bill follows congressional concerns with DHS’ opening of a CBP pre-clearance facility at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. U.S.-bound passengers who are screened at these CBP facilities at foreign airports are allowed by bypass screening at U.S. airports upon arrival.