By Calvin Biesecker
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) yesterday said that next week it will officially end the pilot status of the ongoing Registered Traveler (RT) program, a move that essentially will allow the program to expand beyond the current maximum of 20 airports.
Additionally, TSA will no longer conduct security threat assessments of potential RT members, a process that is redundant because it basically duplicates the watchlist matching all airline passengers are subject to every time they fly. That means that the $28 fee TSA currently charges RT service providers for the threat assessments will be eliminated.
The lift on the airport cap and elimination of the security background checks don’t mean any added conveniences for RT members, which currently number over 135,000 and growing. But it does mean that TSA believes that the RT program is proving to be an effective identification verification program for those individuals applying for and receiving RT cards from the different service providers.
“We have determined that Registered Traveler holds promise as a biometrically enhanced, private sector identity verification program,” TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said in a statement yesterday.
More interesting is that Hawley told a House aviation panel yesterday that the biometrically-enabled RT cards that members get could be equivalent to Real ID compliant driver’s licenses that many states will eventually issue. That’s because in addition to the biometrics on the card–which typically include fingerprints and iris scans–the Department of Homeland Security has proposed that the RT cards include a tamper proof digital photo of the member as well as other features that secure the data on the card.
Verified Identity Pass Chief Steven Brill told the panel yesterday that his RT program, which is called Clear and has by far the largest membership to date, will soon be delivering the upgraded cards to its members.
Under Real ID, driver’s licenses that meet the requirements of the program are acceptable documents at airports for entering the security lane at checkpoints.
Brill said that the American Association of Airport Executives, which has served as a middleman for RT service providers and TSA for the security threat assessments and already does similar assessments, will do threat assessments for Clear enrollees in the future.
There are currently 19 airports that have RT lines in them. Baltimore Washington International recently issued a Request for Proposals for RT service providers and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, Fla., issued a Request for Information for RT services.
The main benefit for RT members as they go through the security process at airports is that they have their own line which takes them to the front of the line when entering the security checkpoint. Members must still go through metal detectors and take of their shoes and jackets, and remove their laptops from their cases to go through the X-Ray screening machines.