The U.S. Transportation Security Administration "later this
fall" will expand participation in its PreCheck expedited
security-screening program to travelers willing to submit to a background check
and pay an $85 fee for five years of PreCheck eligibility, according to TSA
administrator John Pistole.
PreCheck currently is limited only to select frequent flyers
of designated airlines or participants in such government programs as the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection agency's Global Entry program. Pistole on Friday
announced to applause at the Aspen Security Forum the "major
expansion" of PreCheck to "allow even the infrequent flyers to sign
up online."
He called the program a "domestic version" of
Global Entry, which has won favor among frequent travelers for expediting entry
into the United States.
For PreCheck eligibility, Pistole said applicants would
complete an online application, then submit fingerprints and confirm their
identity through an enrollment site. "Within two to three weeks,"
Pistole said, cleared applicants would receive a "known traveler"
number. "Then, when you make your reservations, you will put your known
traveler number in your profile for your airline, and that will enable you to
be identified as a low-risk passenger," Pistole said Friday.
Pistole declined to specify the data that TSA would use to conduct
threat assessments, but said "it's very limited compared to what some
people may think," noting that TSA does not, for example, examine credit
data, "as some suspect."
Instead, "it's basic travel information that the
airlines have."
Meanwhile, Pistole said, "We are working with
third-party private companies on doing this same thing for people who are
concerned about sharing information with the government, given all the issues
there. They would pay a fee to a third-party vendor who would then do an assessment
based on our criteria, our algorithms, to do initial vetting; we'd do the final
vetting, of course."
TSA already has solicited proposals on the concept from
some commercial entities.
PreCheck is operational at 40 U.S. airports and continues to
expand, said Pistole. Travelers passing through a PreCheck lane are allowed to
leave shoes and belts on in addition to other expedited screening benefits.
Pistole shared a goal to have 25 percent of the traveling
public passing through these expedited security-screening lanes by year-end and
up to 50 percent by the end of 2014.
U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow in a
statement called the planned PreCheck expansion "a win-win for
everyone," further noting that "the private sector can also play a
pivotal role in growing enrollment in PreCheck, and we hope to work with TSA to
make the program an even bigger success."