COAC Update on Efforts to Resolve Air Cargo Security Redundancies
During the February 25, 2010 Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) meeting, COAC's Air Cargo Security Subcommittee provided an update on its efforts to identify and resolve air cargo security redundancies.
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(The Subcommittee has developed a matrix of the various cargo security-related programs that affect trade participants in the air cargo supply chain. This matrix is being used to identify areas of possible redundancy and/or areas that could be leveraged to improve and streamline air cargo security.
Since the Subcommittee's matrix is essentially "complete," it has moved on to a more in-depth look at some of the areas identified in the matrix.)
Possible Streamlining of "Identification and Credentialing"
According to the Subcommittee, the first area to be looked at in-depth is the issue of identification and credentialing for the air cargo industry.
For the past several months, the government has been examining possible opportunities for identification and credentialing streamlining. In the meantime, the Subcommittee has been working to identify the air cargo industry's "pain points."
By the next COAC meeting (late spring 2010), the Subcommittee expects to have compiled the results of industry's problem areas and the government-identified streamlining opportunities.
TSA Budget Request Would Fund "Credentialing" Streamlining
The Subcommittee noted that DHS' FY 2011 budget for the Transportation Security Administration requests funding for streamlining and internal IT work on credentialing.
The FY 2011 budget requests $65.1 million (an increase of $1.4 million over FY 2010) for TSA's Transportation Threat Assessment and Credentialing infrastructure modernization (TIM).
The goal of TIM is to provide a unified and scalable enterprise architecture to improve vetting and credentialing services to current and future TSA screening populations. The TIM program will enable policy, business, systems, and data integration and drive the deployment of a person-centric information architecture in accordance with the DHS Credentialing Framework Initiative (CFI).
This will be accomplished by consolidating enrollments, identify management services, customer relationship management, credentialing processes, vetting and adjudication, and integrating program specific information technology solutions and business processes. The TIM program will also eliminate redundant background checks by working in tandem with TSA's Universal Fee Rule initiative.
(According to TSA budget documents, in the past, TSA's vetting programs were quickly implemented to support statutory requirements to respond to screening related security threats. As a result, four years later, TSA is reliant on multiple implementations of disparate architectures and business processes developed to support what was initially viewed as unique attributes of individual threat assessment programs.)
Subcommittee's Next Focus Will be on C-TPAT, CCSP Compatibility
The Subcommittee states that the next issue it plans to examine is how to leverage the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program and the Certified Cargo Screening Program. The goal would be to increase participation in CCSP by incentivizing C-TPAT members to join the CCSP.