HR 5227 Introduced

Yesterday Rep. Young (R,AK) introduced HR 5227, the TWIC Delivery Act of 2010. The bill would amend Section 70105(b) of Title 46 USC to require that the Government would deliver Transportation Workers Identification Credentials (TWIC) by US Mail to anyone who “who resides in a location where the nearest transportation security card enrollment center is not accessible by a State or Federal road or is more than 100 miles from the location” {§2(a)(3)}. Currently applicants must pick-up their card at the enrollment center so that they can verify their biometric identification. While people can readily see why a Congressman from Alaska would be concerned about this issue, this has been an issue raised by a number of people that live long distances from the limited number of processing facilities. Since it is going to be at least another year before the TWIC can really be used as anything other than a picture ID (it will be at least that long before TWIC readers can officially be deployed) the requirement for biometric identification verification is a bit of a red herring. The bill has been referred to the House Homeland Security Committee and it currently has no co-sponsors. To date there is no companion bill in the Senate.