DHS Agencies Announce Date for TWIC Program Enrollment at Honolulu

Market Wire, November, 2007

On Nov. 7, port workers, longshoremen, truckers and others at the Port of Honolulu will begin to enroll in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program ensures that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat.

TWIC enrollment began Oct. 16 at the Port of Wilmington, Del., and by Nov. 8 will be underway at six other ports -- Corpus Christi and Beaumont, Texas; Baton, Rouge, La.; Tacoma, Wash.; Oakland, Calif.; and Honolulu. Other ports will follow throughout the month of November as the nationwide program quickly expands to vet more than 1 million workers through the rest of 2007 and 2008.

"The start of enrollment in Honolulu is another step in the implementation of this important port security measure," said the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Maurine Fanguy, program director for TWIC. "TWIC is one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems and has a lot of moving pieces. We are now seeing those pieces come together."

Workers at the Port of Honolulu will be able to pre-enroll for TWIC starting today. A link to the pre-enrollment Web site is available on the TSA Web site ( www.tsa.gov ). Pre-enrolling online speeds up the process by allowing workers to provide biographic information and schedule a time to complete the application process in person. This eliminates waiting at enrollment centers and reduces the time it takes to enroll each individual.

More information on the TWIC program is available at www.tsa.gov and more information on port security is available at the U.S. Coast Guard's Homeport site at http://homeport.uscg.mil by clicking on the Maritime Security link.