NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Milwaukee Port Workers Begin Enrollment for Federal Security Credential

Tomorrow, port and longshore workers, truckers and others working within the Port of Milwaukee will begin to enroll in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program's goal is to ensure 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.

Nationwide, more than 1 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas will apply for TWIC during the rest of 2007 and 2008.

"We will open enrollment tomorrow, which is one more step in our effort to prevent persons who are a threat from gaining access to secure areas of port facilities," said Maurine Fanguy, the TWIC program director for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). "We appreciate the support of our partners at the Port of Milwaukee for helping to make one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems a reality."

Enrollment began Oct. 16 and by the end of the week 32 ports will be actively enrolling workers. Ultimately, established fixed enrollment centers will be in place at 147 ports along with mobile enrollment centers at dozens of other locations as needed.

"TWIC will be a crucial part of our multi-layered risk based approach to maritime security," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Richard Reinemann. "It will strengthen security and access control to the port and on thousands of other maritime facilities and vessels." Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan has worked closely with the maritime industry, including waterfront facility operators, licensed mariners and port representatives, over the past year in preparation for the TWIC enrollment roll-out.

Workers at the Port of Milwaukee are able to pre-enroll for TWIC online at www.tsa.gov/twic or the Coast Guard's Homeport site, http://homeport.uscg.mil. Pre-enrolling 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.

The Port of Milwaukee TWIC enrollment center is located in the Chase Commerce Center at 3073 South Chase Avenue, Building 28, Floor 1, Suite 620, Milwaukee. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.