$250M effort to secure ports lags

WASHINGTON -- A six-year, $250 million anti-terrorism effort to secure the nation's ports is delayed for at least two more years because the government lacks machines to read fingerprint ID cards issued to more than 1 million workers.

Truckers, deckhands and others requiring access to secure areas at ports paid $132 apiece for the high-tech ID cards that have their fingerprints embedded in them. But the Homeland Security Department, which is overseeing the program, says it still lacks fingerprint readers that can be used reliably in harsh weather.

A senior lawmaker and a labor official say readers should have been installed at the nation's seaports to prevent people from using fake IDs.

Congress ordered the cards in late 2002 based on concerns that terrorists might try to blow up busy seaports or smuggle bombs, weapons or operatives into the country inside cargo containers. Homeland Security was supposed to issue orders this month requiring ports to install card-reading machines, under a 2006 law.

The order will not be issued until late 2010 and it may exempt low-risk ports from having card readers, Coast Guard Cmdr. Dave Murk said.

"Most people would say it's real dumb to have security cards that rely so much on technology and yet you fail to provide a reader for the card," said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. "That was not the intent of the program."

Chuck Mack of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said, "It's grossly unfair to spend that kind of money and not have the readers in place."

Maurine Fanguy, head of the ID program, said the cards improve security even without the fingerprint scanners, because they are issued after workers' criminal history and immigration status are checked. The cards, which have holograms and microprinting that can be read only with magnification, are hard to forge, Fanguy said. Port workers previously used driver's licenses or port ID cards.

"This is a much more secure credential," Fanguy said. About 1 million port workers and 200,000 mariners have received the cards.