Pull your own weight, RegisteredTraveler!

Port Security News.


Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week (September14) that officials are still uncertain as to the level of fees to charge participants in the Registered Traveler Program. Under the program, people who pass a voluntary background check would receive a fingerprint-embedded ID card that would give them access to special security lanes at airports with expedited screening.

Chertoff said that he supports the idea of making people in the program “pay their own weight,” which could cost up to $200 a year. He said: “We shouldn’t necessarily have the taxpayer pay to subsidize people who want to go through the Registered Traveler program. We want to be fair…Now exactly what the right amount of money is going to be and how that’s going to work, I think, is something we’re still looking at.”

The Transportation Security Administration a few days earlier disclosed that it plans to charge travelers $100 to $120 to enroll in the program and at least $70 a year for every year after their first in the program. It was an amount that drew criticism from supporters of the program, such as the Voluntary Credentialing Industry Coalition, who said the fee level could “stunt, if not eliminate,” the program. TSA head Kip Hawley, however, said that $100 is “a reasonable estimate” of the cost for each Registered Traveler.