House panel advances bill to study TSA’s embrace of digital IDs
A Utah state worker displays a sample mobile drivers license at a 2021 event. Utah is currently one of nine states to offer mDLs. Some in Congress want more information on how digital IDs impact transportation security. George Frey/Getty Images
Travelers from nine states can now use mobile driver’s licenses to verify their identities at 27 U.S. airports.
Bipartisan legislation that would study the Transportation Security Administration's use of digital identification systems is headed to the House floor after making it through a key committee last week.
During a House Homeland Security Committee markup on June 12, the panel’s members favorably advanced legislation introduced by Reps. Clay Higgins, R-La., and Bill Foster, D-Ill., that would require TSA to compile a report on how its acceptance of digital IDs impacts U.S. homeland security.
Nine states offer mobile drivers licenses that are interoperable with TSA’s Credential Authentication Technology, or CAT units, with 27 airports across the U.S. now accepting the digital IDs. The agency said on its website that travelers can use their digital IDs by adding “your state-issued eligible driver's license or identification card to your phone using a TSA-approved digital ID app or to your digital wallet.”
During the markup, Higgins — who chairs the panel’s Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee — voiced support for TSA’s willingness to embrace digital IDs in the airport screening process but added “it's also important that we understand the full extent of the risks and benefits of utilizing this technology to advance the agency's homeland security mission.”
“We must ensure that the federal government is utilizing the best technology to protect the homeland and ensure that the government respects the privacy of our citizens,” Higgins said.
Within 180 days of its passage, the bill would require TSA to submit a report to relevant congressional committees “describing the current state of digital identity ecosystems and the homeland security value of emerging digital identity ecosystems in the transportation sector.”
The report would need to include the benefits and risks of such technologies, as well as how the tools would “protect homeland security and increase the competitive advantage” of the U.S.
TSA has been rolling out more advanced identity verification screeners at airports in recent years, including modernized CAT units that employ facial biometrics.
These CAT-2 units use facial recognition technology to compare real-time photos of travelers against their government-issued IDs. The agency said it is also using these new machines “to conduct an operational assessment of digital IDs, including mobile driver’s licenses.”
The agency plans to deploy the CAT-2 units at more than 400 airports under its authority in the coming years, although lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have voiced privacy and civil rights concerns about TSA’s broad adoption of facial biometrics.