Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 09, 2007)

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Ms. CASTOR. Madam Chair, I rise today in support of this amendment. My amendment requires the Department of Homeland Security to work with the State of Florida and other States, if necessary, to resolve the differences between the Federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential, known as the TWIC, and Florida's existing access control card.

You see, shortly after 9/11, the State of Florida enacted a law requiring a centralized biometric credential for workers in deepwater ports in the State of Florida, including the three ports in my district in the Tampa Bay area.

This credential is known as the Florida Uniform Port Access Credential, or FUPAC. At the port of Tampa, we have credentialed over 39,000 port workers and the State of Florida has credentialed over 100,000 port workers throughout the State. This means that the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have conducted extensive background checks.

Meanwhile, the Federal TWIC, which was first mandated in the Maritime Transportation Security Act, was not finalized by the Department of Homeland Security until just a few months ago.

The criteria in the FUPAC and the TWIC greatly duplicate each other. The Federal Government and the State of Florida must reconcile these credentials to ensure that our resources go to make our neighbors and our ports safe rather than satisfy bureaucratic red tape.

The Florida Ports Council says that this issue and its resolution will have a profound effect on both the viability of our maritime businesses and the security of Florida's ports.

As long as proper security requirements are being met, as they are with Florida's port credential, we need to spare the working folks who keep our ports moving from having to bear the burden and expense of undergoing unnecessarily duplicative background checks.

The amendment offered today requires that the Department of Homeland Security work with the State of Florida to resolve inconsistencies and avoid unnecessary duplication between the TWIC and the FUPAC.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment which will aid Florida's strong maritime economy and ensure that valuable resources go to keeping our neighbors and our ports safe rather than to unnecessary bureaucratic red tape.

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Ms. CASTOR. Madam Chair, in closing, I would like to thank Chairman Thompson and all of the hard-working members and staff of the Homeland Security Committee, and thank my colleagues from Florida, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite and Mr. Bilirakis, for their bipartisan efforts to solve this problem. I urge adoption of the amendment.

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