MTSA Facility ID

Last week the Coast Guard published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that as the Transportation Workers Identification Cards (TWIC) is phased in at various ports around the country, the existing name-based workers identification programs put into place in April 2006 will be terminated. Once TWIC has been fully implanted in a port, the Captain of the Port (COTP) will no longer be required to enforce the name-based vetting for selected workers. In any case, that name-based program will cease on April 28th, 2009. Table 1 in the notice provides the date by which each port facility is expected to have TWIC implanted. By that date, unless otherwise notified by the COTP, each MTSA facility owner/operator (employees) and union (longshoremen) will no longer be required to submit the information required to support the name-based vetting program. The TWIC program requires individuals to submit their own information as part of the process for applying for TWIC.