House Passes HR 5729 – TWIC Reader Rule Delay

Yesterday the House passed HR 5729, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential Accountability Act of 2018, by a voice vote. There was a short nine-minute debate on the bill with two representatives speaking in favor of the bill.

Both Rep. Katko (R,NY) and Rep. Norton (D,DC) mentioned in their floor speeches concerns about the “expanded scope of the final [TWIC Reader] rule where facility areas subject to the TWIC reader requirement went beyond what was included in the proposed rule and regulatory analysis accompanying that rule” (pg H5996). Norton also mentioned “concerns and questions about the reliability of background check information, the efficacy of fraud detection capabilities, and the relatively high cost of the credential have been persistent shortfalls that the Department of Homeland Security has never gotten right.”

Unfortunately for the two representatives neither issue is addressed by this bill. The bill simply extends the effective date for the TWIC Reader Rule until the “end of the 60-day period beginning on the date of the submission under paragraph (5) of section 1(b) of Public Law 114–278 [link added] (130 Stat. 1411 to 1412) of the results of the assessment required by that section.”

It will be interesting to see if the Senate takes up this bill before August 18^th, 2018. If it is signed by the President sometime after the 18^th it will have the interesting effect of prohibiting the implementation of something that will have already been implemented. That will cause all sorts of potentially interesting legal complications, at least until the report is filed.

This bill would have no effect on the current Coast Guard rulemaking underway to delay for three years the implementation of the TWIC Reader Rule for a limited sub-set of the currently affected facilities.