American Trucking Associations this week joined more than 150 organizations representing trucking, rail, energy, organized labor, agriculture, third-party logistics providers and other key supply chain stakeholders in penning a four-page letter urging the House Homeland Security Committee to pass the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act.
The Homeland Security Committee is scheduled this week to markup the bi-partisan bill, which would eliminate redundant fees and background checks for essential transportation workers.The bill was introduced by Representatives Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), Adam Smith (D-Washington), Mark Green (R-Tennessee), Michael Guest (R-Mississippi), Salud Carbajal (D-California) and Dina Titus (D-Nevada).
“There is no more effective way to thank truck drivers than by taking action to make their difficult jobs a little easier," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear, who last week headed to Capitol Hill last week to meet one-on-one with the bill’s original sponsors and the leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, Representatives Green and Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), to shore up support. "It is fitting that immediately following National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, members of the House Homeland Security Committee will have the opportunity to pass legislation to respect truckers’ time and money.
Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act reforms, Spear said, "the outdated, inefficient and costly bureaucratic system that forces essential workers to pay duplicative fees and undergo duplicative background checks to obtain the credentials they need to do their jobs," allowing workers to apply existing valid background checks to multiple TSA-managed credentialing programs, such as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME) programs. By eliminating duplicative screenings and harmonizing these programs, the bill would codify formal recommendations by the Government Accountability Office dating back to 2007. These recommendations were reaffirmed in 2020 in a comprehensive security assessment conducted by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center.
The bill does not make any modifications to the backend security threat assessment conducted on individual applicants, ensuring that they undergo the same level of review as they do under current law.The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, led by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), previously voted to advance the measure.
