Port employees will have some additional time to get their Transportation Worker Identification Credential. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that the final compliance date for TWIC will be April 15, 2009, which reflects a realignment of the Sept. 25, 2008 compliance date.
The extension is a result of talks with port officials and industry, and realigns the enrollment period with the original intent of the TWIC. The ID card was established in the Maritime Transportation Security Act and the SAFE Port Act to serve as an identification program for all Coast Guard credentialed mariners and personnel requiring unescorted access to secure areas within a port.
A number of ports will complete enrollment by the end of the year. Owners and operators of facilities located within Captain of the Port Zones Boston, Northern New England, and Southeastern New England will need to comply by October 15, 2008. These ports were selected based on good conditions that facilitate implementation, such as geographic proximity, the size of their TWIC enrollment population, and respective enrollment efforts to date.
The TWIC program has opened more than 100 fixed enrollment centers and dozens of mobile sites nationally. More than 250,000 workers have enrolled and thousands are processed each week. Enrollment began at the Port of Wilmington, Del. in October 2007. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/archive-4.gif)
