23 June 2005
Lawmakers Call for Improved Border Security, Secure e-Passports
Biometric passport would take security, travel facilitation to new level, officials say
By Anthony Kujawa
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington – Lawmakers are calling for improved border security through use of reliable, secure biometric passports, urging the U.S. government to work with international partners to create a passport that incorporates a “superior” biometric standard.
Speaking at a June 22 House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing on enhancing security through use of biometric passports, the subcommittee's chairman, Daniel Lungren, said, “If we are serious about the terrorist threat we must work toward a superior biometric [in passports].”
Testifying before the subcommittee, State Department Deputy Assistance Secretary for Passport Services Frank Moss described efforts to incorporate biometrics in U.S. passports and shared with the committee a sample of a new passport that incorporates a contactless chip.
“Our objective in designing the new passport is to raise further the bar against counterfeiting or the fraudulent use of lost or stolen passports,” he said, explaining that in addition to incorporating biometric technology, the passport includes a host of new security features, including sophisticated artwork and new printing techniques.
At issue at the hearing was a June 15 announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) must produce passports – also known as e-passports -- with an integrated circuit chip that can incorporate a biometric identifier by October 26, 2006. Prior to the announcement, VWP countries were expected to produce such passports by October 26. The program enables citizens of 27 countries to visit the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa.
Referring to the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to require VWP countries to produce passports with a digitized photograph by October 26, not an e-passport with an integrated circuit chip, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox said, “I’m struck by the misuse of the term biometric to [mean] a photograph in the near term.”
“That’s not a biometric identification method in my view. There is no biometric identifier connecting the person to the document,” the Republican from California said.
The biometric passport requirements stem from legislation passed in 2002 -- the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the Border Security Act). The law originally required that the government of each VWP country certify it had a program to produce tamper-resistant, machine-readable passports that incorporate a biometric identifier that complies with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards by October 26, 2004. In mid-2004, Congress extended the deadline one year. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in recent months, has clarified requirements for continued participation in the VWP. (See related article.)
Commenting on the decision to give Visa Waiver Program countries until October 2006 to what he called “fully implement” the congressionally mandated biometric identifier requirement in passports for VWP countries, the Homeland Security Committee’s ranking Democrat, Bernie G. Thomson of Mississippi, complained: “Our nation deserves better than that. The Department [of Homeland Security] can’t keep telling America that it will get homeland security done next year.”
Many lawmakers were also critical of ICAO’s decision to adopt facial recognition technology as the interoperable biometric standard for passports, instead urging that fingerprints or iris scan be used as the biometric standard for future passports.
The Department of Homeland Security’s acting assistant secretary for border and transportation security policy, Elaine Dezenski, testified that digital photographs provide more security against counterfeiting than traditional photographs, noting that digital photos can be electronically stored and accessed, making it easier to verify whether the individual presenting the passport is the same person to whom the passport was issued.
“Biometric identifiers protect our visitors by making it extremely difficult for anyone else to assume their identities should their travel documents be stolen or duplicated,” she said, adding that when “properly used” the identifiers have been highly effective in verifying identity.
Asked why the fingerprints are not incorporated into the proposed new U.S. passport, the State Department’s Moss explained that facial recognition technology is “our first generation biometric.”
He said the State Department “found very very impressive results” in using facial recognition software, in its ability to match visa applicants against those with disguises or applying multiple times for the same benefit. The United States now collects a digital photo and fingerscans of all visa applicants.
Addressing concerns that data written to the contactless chip in passports might be susceptible to unauthorized reading, Moss said that “anti-skimming materials” which prevent the chip from being read when the passport book is closed or mostly closed would be placed in e-passports.
“The bottom line is that we will not issue biometric passports to the general public until we have successfully addressed these concerns,” Moss testified. “[T]he new e-passport, including biometrics and other improvements, will take security and travel facilitation to a new level.”
Dezenski called progress made toward the e-passport “a milestone in our global path to secure and streamlined travel for VWP nationals.”
“We appreciate the cooperation of our international partners and the effort they have put forth in this very serious matter,” Dezenski said.
More information and testimony from the hearing is available on the House Homeland Security Committee’s Web Site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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