TSA Fingerprinting Applicants for Hazmat Endorsement
By Oliver B. Patton, Washington Editor
First-time applicants to haul hazardous materials are now being fingerprinted as part of a background check procedure designed to improve homeland security.
Fingerprinting for renewals and transfers of the hazmat endorsement to the Commercial Driver's License will begin May 31.
Background checks were ordered by Congress in the Patriot Act, following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Under the procedure set up by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), all drivers who have a hazmat endorsement will have to be fingerprinted and clear a check by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
A driver will be permanently barred from hauling hazmats if he has been convicted of a serious felony, and will be barred on an interim basis for other offenses (See sidebar).
TSA has an appeal and waiver program for drivers who wish to challenge a decision, or who claim they have been rehabilitated. Hazmat endorsements must be renewed at least every five years, although some states require more frequent renewal.
For the moment, the program is being administered by TSA, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. That could change, however, under a reorganization that would shift the program to Homeland Security's Office of Screening Coordination and Operations - the SCO, for those who must keep track of industry acronyms. (See related story).
TSA describes the fingerprinting that began Jan. 31 as the second phase of a three-phase process. The first phase occurred last year when the agency checked the names of some 2.7 million hazmat drivers. The third phase begins with the May fingerprinting.
The fingerprinting program is being run by the states. Seventeen states have elected to use their own facilities to handle the fingerprinting. They are: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The rest of the states have signed on with a third-party contractor, Integrated Biometric Technology of Nashville, Tenn. In most of these states IBT has just one location where drivers can get fingerprinted. In California there are three sites, and North Carolina and New Jersey each have two.
Locations of the IBT sites and details about the program are posted on the web at www.hazprints.com.
TSA is going ahead with the fingerprinting program despite deep concern in the trucking community. American Trucking Assns. (ATA) and the National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC), which support the background checks, warned that the fingerprinting program will cause hardships for drivers and exacerbate the driver shortage. They wanted the agency to postpone fingerprinting until the national Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC), which will include a biometric identifier, goes into effect.
The TWIC is being designed to give workers access to secure areas at transportation facilities. Besides tightening security, it is supposed to make worker identification more efficient by reducing the number of credentials a worker needs and speeding up the ID process. TSA is now in the third phase of the design process, testing administrative procedures using an integrated chip circuit card with a fingerprint. It probably will be several years before the card is ready.
John Conley, vice president of NTTC, noted that the most obvious loophole in the hazmat program - it does not cover Canadian and Mexican drivers - makes it hard to explain to U.S. drivers. The U.S. government is working with Canada and Mexico to close the gap, but right now the situation "looks a little silly," he said.
Canadian explosives drivers currently are required to clear background checks, and the U.S. and Canadian governments are discussing ways to extend those checks to Canadian hazmat drivers, said Deirdre O'Sullivan of TSA. She said the discussions are "ongoing" but did not know when they might conclude. And, the U.S. and Mexico are negotiating terms that would require Mexican drivers to meet the same requirements as U.S. drivers, under the North American Free Trade Agreement, she said.
Washington Report continued...
