"Fast-check ID tests proposed for airports in Philadelphia, L.A."

Thursday, September 26, 2002

Fast-check ID tests proposed for airports in Philadelphia, L.A.
By Leslie Miller
The Associated Press

  
WASHINGTON -- Airports in Los Angeles and Philadelphia are proposed test
sites for transportation ID cards that could be issued to travelers,
allowing them to pass easily through security checks. 

Transportation Security Administration chief James Loy said the cards
also would be tested at the ports of Long Beach, Calif., and Wilmington,
Del. 

Loy said transportation workers would first get the IDs at the ports and
at Los Angeles International and Philadelphia International airports. If
the cards prove successful, they could be extended to passengers. 

"We want to establish those prototypes almost immediately," Loy said,
adding that the proposed testing is awaiting congressional approval. 

Loy said the ID card technology would form the basis for what he calls a
"registered traveler program." 

He recently told the Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee that
people who register for the program would have to submit to detailed
background checks. 

"We will know more about them from a security standpoint than anonymous
passengers who present themselves to our screeners at the airport," he
said. 

The program would ease congestion at security checkpoints and reduce
security hassles for registered travelers, he said.
 
"This is great news for passengers," said David Stempler, president of
the Air Travelers Association, a passenger advocacy group. "Anything
that will speed passengers through airport processing is something
that's going to get airline passengers back on the planes again." 

But Paul Hudson, executive director of the advocacy group Aviation
Consumer Action Project, said Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the 9-11
hijackers, could have become a registered traveler. So could Timothy
McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and Theodore Kaczynski, the
Unabomber.


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