September 12, 2008

The Coast Guard has added southern Florida, the Louisiana Gulf Coast and Hampton Roads, Virginia, and the upper Mississippi River to the regions in which it will begin enforcement of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC), reports the Journal of Commerce.

Enforcement, as it applies to TWIC, involves Coast Guard personnel conducting spot-checks to see if workers have TWIC cards. This enforcement is set to begin in the new regions on January 13, 2009.

The next round of enforcement will begin in February 2009. It will include ports in Alaska and Hawaii, and the northern mainland Pacific Coast. Finally, enforcement at the top-tier ports, New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles-Long Beach and Houston-Galveston, will begin after March 1, 2009.

According to the latest statistics from the Transportation Security Administration, 483,241 workers have enrolled for the TWIC program, and 304,159 cards have been activated.