By Calvin Biesecker
A Department of Homeland Security program aimed at improving how airline passengers are pre-screened against a terrorist watchlist has been certified by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that it meets congressional requirements, marking a key milestone in initiating Secure Flight early next year, a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Agency official said yesterday.
Chertoff certified that Secure Flight meets 10 conditions outlined in the FY ’05 DHS Appropriations Act, allowing the program to get underway in January 2009, Gregory Wellen, assistant administrator for Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing, told a House Homeland Security panel. Before the rollout begins the final regulatory rule must be issued, which is expected in November, he said.
Currently airlines query passenger names against a United States government watchlist–known as the Terrorist Screening Database–for possible links to terrorism. Under Secure Flight, TSA will take over the information matching function.
The current screening process has come under attack, particularly from some members of Congress, for consistently misidentifying innocent U.S. citizens as persons on the watchlist. That’s due in part because these people have names that are the same or are similar too actual persons in the watchlist.
It was unclear from yesterday’s hearing exactly why some people continue to be flagged against the watchlist despite TSA’s efforts to establish a redress process. However, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley and Cathleen Berrick, an official with the Government Accountability Office who helps to oversee TSA, both noted that each airline has different methods for querying the watchlist.
Berrick noted that even though TSA has a “cleared list” for innocent people who may have the same or similar name to suspected terrorists who are on the watchlist, of 14 air carriers GAO interviewed, only 10 use the list. She said TSA oversight of the airlines in how they screen passenger names has been lax and needs to be strengthened.
Moving forward, as Secure Flight is implemented, the system should automatically provide a clear message for persons who currently experience hang-ups related to the watchlist, Wellen said.
Berrick said that it will take TSA about a year to implement Secure Flight for domestic air travel before it begins to apply the program for international travel.
Hawley said that it will cost TSA about $1 billion over 10 years to implement Secure Flight, including life-cycle costs. Annual costs over the first five years of the program will be between $85 million and $93 million, Wellen said.
GAO expects to issue a report in December on how well TSA is meeting the 10 congressional requirements for Secure Flight, Berrick said.