Workers have had to get TWICs, but the system has proven a costly failure.
Washington paid $2.5 billion for security upgrades at U.S. seaports in the decade that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
Improvements ranged from fences to deployment of radiation monitors to a $420 million program to establish an integrated identification card network [Read about TWIC here] to be used by the nation’s 1.6 million port employees, longshoremen and truckers.
The situation could become harder for harbor operators should lawmakers in Washington slash financial support for port security in the next federal budget. A House-backed funding bill would take $1 billion from the Homeland Security Department, with most of the money coming from grant projects.