Registered Traveler on "pause"

USA TODAY



'Traveler' test has promise, so why stop it now?
For the past year, more than 9,000 "registered travelers" have benefited from a test program that has meant more convenience — and less scanning, searching, wanding and patting-down — at certain airports.

But, no more. After Friday, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the program is "on pause."

That's too bad.
$20 MILLION PILOT PROGRAM
Five airports and more than 9,000 travelers participated in TSA's "Registered Traveler" program:
Airport Travelers
Boston's Logan International 1,800
Houston's George Bush Intercontinental 2,000
Los Angeles International 1,200
Minneapolis-St. Paul International 2,300
Reagan Washington National 1,800
Source: Transportation Security Administration

The $20 million program worked like this: Volunteer fliers at five airports provided the government with biographical data, fingerprints and iris scans and submitted to a government background check. Once cleared, they got an expedited security lane and faced fewer personal searches.

The experiment was an all-around win. The volunteers got more convenience. Other fliers got shorter lines. The nation's overburdened security regime got fewer unknown travelers to screen. And if the program could be improved and expanded, it would mean safer skies and less hassle for everyone.

Leave it to the government to slow things to a crawl. The pilot programs "have run their course and now is the time for us to look at the data, analyze and see what we can learn," a TSA spokesman said.

Couldn't that have been done over the past year, or without having to shut down a program after going through all the effort of setting it up?

Whatever the future, this latest pause means yet another delay in the government's four-year quest for a way to separate the millions of fliers who pose no risk from the relatively small number who might.

The larger effort, known as "Secure Flight," has stumbled repeatedly. Four years after 9/11, for example, air passengers are still not checked against a full list of potential terrorists. Last week, an oversight panel said Secure Flight is so riddled with problems that it should not be allowed to go forward without significant changes.

The simple fact is the government cannot hope to do a thorough job of screening the 1.8 million air passengers who come through airports on an average day. Some way must be found to divide those who need extra screening from those who don't.

"Registered Traveler" offered a solution that avoided privacy concerns. One test program at Orlando's airport — the only one run by a private firm — is still alive. About 7,500 fliers have paid $79.95 each to join. Fifty airports have formed a consortium to find a way to provide similar programs around the nation. But they cannot move on this security issue without TSA's blessing.

Certainly, there's room for improvement. Taxpayers were footing the bill for the just-halted pilot program. Perhaps fliers should pay, as they're doing in Orlando, for the convenience. The whole purpose of a yearlong test program was to work out these details. More delay will not make "Registered Traveler" better or the nation's skies more secure.



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Editorial.