Congress threatens to block rule to have airlines pay for foreign-exit system

Congress threatened on Wednesday to block a proposed rule by the Homeland Security Department that would require airlines to pay for a system that would collect biometric data to verify the identities of foreign visitors when they leave the United States.

Comment on this article in The Forum.At a hearing of the Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee, members questioned DHS' argument for placing the burden of paying for a collection system on airlines, especially given the industry's financial strains brought about by higher fuel costs. "We're not interested in passing costs on to airlines," said Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., chairwoman of the subcommittee. "If you move forward with the rule, you may get blocked quickly by this body."

DHS has until June 2009 to implement a system that uses biometric features such as fingerprints to verify the identities of foreign travelers who leave the United States. If the department misses the deadline, it could lose funding to expand the Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the United States for a limited time without obtaining a visa.

Homeland Security issued a proposed rule in April 2008 that essentially passed all costs for the collection of digital fingerprints to airlines. According to the proposed rule, airlines would collect the data in conjunction with biographical information they already submit to DHS. The period for public comment on the proposed rule ended June 23.

At the hearing, Douglas Lavin, regional vice president for North America at the International Air Transport Association, called the proposed rule "illogical and insulting."

He added: "This is a core government responsibility that DHS should not be able to offload. Congress never gave DHS the authority to transmit this obligation to the private sector. The airline industry simply can't afford to pay this bill."

Lavin estimated the cost to airlines to build a system to collect biometric information from foreign travelers would be $12.3 billion for 10 years, nearly three times DHS' 10-year estimate of $3.5 billion.

The exit system is supposed to be part of the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, or US VISIT, which was required by the 2001 USA Patriot Act and recommended by the 9/11 commission to better track when foreign visitors entered and exited the country. When a foreign traveler enters the United States, the US VISIT system checks if the person's fingerprints match those in a government database of known or suspected terrorists. DHS completed the portion of the system to check visitors' identities when they entered the country in 2005, but the department has yet to develop the exit portion of the system, mostly because airports and the government lack established processes and equipment such as networks and kiosks to check foreign travelers as they leave.

DHS also chose to pursue a policy of requiring airlines to pay for the exit portion of the system because foreign travelers did not use kiosks during a pilot test. The department set up the kiosks in airports to test if visitors would voluntarily submit their biometric data before leaving the country, but compliance was low because the kiosks were hard to find, the department reported.

"We need to use existing infrastructure [and] known processes [that are the] least disturbing to travelers," said Robert Mocny, director of US VISIT. "The known process is [that] someone goes from point A to B and gets on the plane. Through those existing touch points airlines have the most control." Those points include the airline counters where passengers check in or ticket kiosks and departure gates, he said.

Jane Harman, D-Calif., questioned why government couldn't pay for the upgrades to collect biometric information from foreign travelers when they checked in at an airline counter or kiosk. "You mention all kinds of problems with technology, time, resources and people, but it doesn't seem the right answer to say airlines, who are struggling with fuel costs for survival, should take this on," she said.

Failure to meet the June 2009 deadline jeopardizes DHS plans to expand the Visa Waiver Program to more countries. The failure to meet the deadline also threatens the expansion of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, a system that screens passengers before they travel to the United States and is part of the waiver program. The travel authorization system will begin to accept voluntary applications on Aug. 1, and DHS expects to make the system mandatory in January 2009 for travelers from countries that are included in the visa waiver program.

The program issues about 14 million waivers annually, said Stephen Edson, deputy assistant secretary for visa services at the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department. When asked by Sanchez about the impact of a possible suspension of the program, he said the workload at embassies that issue travel visas in countries around the world would triple. "That's not something we could handle," Edson said.