Report to Congress Due May 18, 2002

REPORT TO CONGRESS

ON

ENHANCED SECURITY MEASURES

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Report to Congress Due May 18, 2002

May 19, 2002

Report to Congress on Enhanced Security Measures

May 19, 2002

I. INTRODUCTION

The Aviation and Transportation Security Act (P.L. 107-71) was signed into law 

by the President on November 19, 2001. Section 109 of the Act authorizes the 

Under Secretary of Transportation for Security to take certain actions in eight 

specific areas listed in the Act to enhance transportation security. The section also 

requires submission of a progress report to Congress six months after the date of 

enactment of the Act, describing progress on the evaluation and implementation 

of the actions listed in the section, including any legislative recommendations that 

the Under Secretary may have for enhancing transportation security. This report 

must be submitted annually thereafter until all specified actions are evaluated and 

implemented or until the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) makes a 

decision made not to pursue further action.

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The Under Secretary makes no specific legislative proposals at this point. A 

status report regarding each of the eight statutorily identified items follows.

II. STATUS OF TSA EVALUATIONS

ITEM #1. Require effective 911 emergency call capability for telephones 

serving passenger aircraft and passenger trains.

Discussion: TSA does not anticipate requiring a specific 911 emergency call 

capability for either of these two modes of transportation.

Regarding aircraft, TSA has decided not to pursue the extensive research and 

regulation that would be needed to establish a consolidated 911 air-ground 

capability for passengers traveling on commercial aircraft. Instead, for 

commercial aviation, TSA and FAA expect that flight deck crews and certain 

automated systems monitoring aircraft operations will be the primary source for 

emergency notifications. The Department of Transportation has taken a “system 

of systems” approach -- at airports and aboard aircraft -- to harden the cockpit 

from intrusion and protect aircraft from terrorists. 

TSA is working actively with FAA and the industry to improve cockpit 

emergency tools that will allow for more effective emergency communication 

with air traffic control, the airline flight operations centers and appropriate 

emergency responders. These include systems and procedures that improve 

routine and emergency communications between flight deck and cabin crews, as 

well as specific flight deck technology. For example, FAA has made or is in the 

process of making awards this year for at least $25 million in satellite 

communication link demonstrations, and $3 million in cockpit intrusion warning 

devices, and is working closely with manufacturers on important transponder 

technology improvements for near-term enhanced transponder deployment.

Regarding passenger trains, TSA has concluded that significant 911 emergency 

notification capacity currently exists for the rail industry. Amtrak’s new, highfile:///C|/Report_to_Congress_on_Enhanced_Security_Measures.htm (3 of 13) [12/6/2002 11:29:39 AM]
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speed Acela trains have an onboard 911 emergency call system in place. Each 

911 phone call made on an Acela train is routed to Amtrak’s National 

Communications Center in Philadelphia, where appropriate action is taken. Also, 

each Amtrak conductor on a train has a radio that is connected to Amtrak’s 

Centralized National Operations Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Both centers 

operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Amtrak is reviewing whether to 

expand its 911 emergency call capability to other trains. 

Commuter trains typically do not have 911 or commercial use telephones, but 

transit systems do use radios and a variety of onboard and track-based warning 

systems for use in alerting the system’s transit operation center to emergencies. 

Transit passenger trains normally have call buttons that allow passengers to alert 

the driver of a train, and the drivers maintain radio contact with dispatchers. In 

addition, commuter rail systems often have security officers equipped with radio 

communication onboard their trains and/or at certain station stops.

Perhaps most importantly, a high percentage of passengers on both intercity and 

commuter trains have cellular telephones that can be employed for emergency 

notifications. TSA notes that the Department will continue to support the 

Secretary’s “E911” initiative, a nationwide effort to improve 911 caller location 

capability and responder support for emergency notifications of all types, 

including transportation emergencies. 

STATUS: Closed.

ITEM #2. Establish a uniform system of identification for all State and local 

law enforcement personnel for use in obtaining permission to carry weapons in 

aircraft cabins and in obtaining access to a secured area of an airport, if 

otherwise authorized to carry such weapons.

Discussion: At present, we do have such an on-going pilot program involving 

various Federal law enforcement agencies that TSA has authorized to travel 

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armed. TSA has had discussions with several states to explore how state and local 

law enforcement officers traveling armed might be employed to assist with 

aircraft security. Such a program will require special training, pre-flight 

notification procedures and an appropriate identification card. 

TSA has made important progress in selecting a uniform system of identification 

– a card-based biometric information system to support positive identification of 

individuals prior to accessing a secure area of an airport or boarding a commercial 

aircraft. TSA contemplates using this same card technology for identification of 

law enforcement officers participating in any TSA approved program by which 

such officials are authorized to travel armed.

After September 11, Secretary Mineta established a multi-modal technology 

assessment team to evaluate and design a comprehensive architecture for 

transportation credentialing. Now managed by TSA staff, it has coordinated 

extensively with various other Executive Branch agencies. Team members 

reviewed tools that include: anti-tamper printing, ink and optical devices; 

advanced smart card technology; multiple biometrics; public key infrastructure; 

distributed network information technology; and other advanced encryption 

techniques. The team is now completing its design proposal. The design includes 

appropriate information technology architecture and a card-based system that will 

support multiple biometric identifiers. Its core technology is already in 

widespread use by the Department of Defense today.

This card initiative is designed to support all modes of transportation with a 

common, secure credential that can be accepted throughout a given modal 

system. The card can securely verify the holder’s identity (with biometrics where 

appropriate), verify that a required background check was completed, and link the 

individual to a permanent record that governs access to specific secure areas. A 

system-wide identification card can provide immediate benefits. To realize its full 

potential -- at airports, for example -- will likely require modifications to gate and 

door access equipment and procedures. The proposed solution will have robust 

functionality into which various transportation modes can grow.

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The credential project participants have engaged in a dialog with many 

associations, industry and other stakeholders. Public meetings were held on 

January 22, March 14 and April 22-29 of this year, involving approximately 1,000 

participants overall. This effort incorporates work previously completed on the 

Law Enforcement Officer Verification Card Program, a proposed system earlier 

tested prior to September 11 by the FAA for granting aircraft access for law 

enforcement officers traveling armed.

STATUS: Active.

ITEM #3. Establish requirements to implement trusted passenger programs 

and use available technologies to expedite the security screening of passengers 

who participate in such programs, thereby allowing security screening 

personnel to focus on those passengers who should be subject to more extensive 

screening.

Discussion: TSA is pursuing multiple actions to minimize the “hassle factor” for 

the traveling public. Evaluation of a trusted traveler or registered passenger 

program is among our priorities in this area. 

To implement a registered passenger program TSA will need a simple, fast, 

affordable and nationally distributed technology to provide effective background 

clearances for a very large number of individuals. TSA is working with the Office 

of Personnel Management and private vendors to put in place a process that would 

be needed for validation of a registered passenger application. This system will 

be tested first on a widespread basis as TSA conducts background screening for 

some 40,000 airport screener positions.

Review of a registered passenger program is on going at TSA.

STATUS: Active.

ITEM #4. In consultation with the Commissioner of the Food and Drug 

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Administration, develop alternative security procedures under which a medical 

product to be transported on a flight of an air carrier would not be subject to an 

inspection that would irreversibly damage the product.

Discussion: The procedures relating to transport of medical products seek to 

ensure verification of contents without damaging the medical products being 

transported. Immediately after the grounding of all flights on September 11, there 

were some urgent needs to transport organs and other time-sensitive medical 

supplies that posed conflicts with the early recovery efforts. Since then, neither 

TSA nor FAA has been informed of significant difficulties in this area.

Transportation of sensitive medical products by airlines incorporates prenotification processes with readily verifiable documentation. Regulations allow 

passengers to request a physical inspection and search of carry-on baggage instead 

of x-ray device screening if there is concern about x-ray damage. The existing 

security procedures ensure verification of contents without damaging the medical 

products being transported. 

The TSA and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of AntiTerrorism Programs began to assess jointly the relevant security mechanisms in 

January 2002, and several exchanges of information have occurred since then. 

FDA has discussed these issues with representatives of the biotech and 

pharmaceuticals industries. Essentially, FDA did not find the existing process for 

the screening of medical products unworkable or excessively burdensome. It is 

TSA’s judgment that alternative procedures are not needed at this time. 

STATUS: Closed.

ITEM #5. Provide for the use of technologies, including wireless and wire line 

data technologies, to enable the private and secure communication of threats to 

aid in the screening of passengers and other individuals on airport property who 

are identified on any State or Federal security-related data base for the purpose 

of having an integrated response coordination of various authorized airport 

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security forces.

Discussion: TSA is actively developing CAPPS II, which will be a second 

generation of the existing Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System 

(CAPPS I) technology. As currently envisioned, CAPPS II will be applied to realtime pre-flight background threat evaluation of passenger manifests, a tool that 

will replace and upgrade the current FAA pre-flight screening program. 

The automated CAPPS II system will be capable of fusing and instantly analyzing 

data from multiple government and private sector sources. CAPPS II will be 

composed of an “intelligent” system, incorporating a neural-network and other 

tools to drive continuous improvement of threat analysis. 

TSA has awarded contracts in a Phase 1 test involving four firms to design 

alternative models for a CAPPS II security scoring algorithm, and to propose 

program design and operating procedures. These firms were selected 

competitively, following TSA interviews with some 30 firms that have made 

proposals in this area. We have also conducted detailed conversations with the 

airline industry, computer reservations systems experts, the FBI, Secret Service, 

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Office of Homeland 

Security, and other Federal agencies. 

The proposed CAPPS II technology will fuse threat data gathered from State, 

Federal, and private sector sources. Data from the existing CAPPS I program is 

today made available to airport security forces only through the intermediary of 

the airline reservation systems. The CAPPS II architecture will eliminate this 

intermediary role of the airlines. An important part of CAPPS II -- but also of 

TSA’s overall information support system design -- will be provision of secure 

communications to front-line security forces. 

TSA is evaluating various technology tools to convey real-time incident reporting 

to its entire airport screening network. All airports served by TSA must be able to 

implement enhanced levels of security screening immediately in response to a 

problem or incident happening across the country or around the globe. This 

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subject will, therefore, be an area of ongoing focus for TSA.

TSA expects to complete a CAPPS II system design by early fall, and will brief 

Congress in detail in a classified setting at that point. TSA plans to proceed to 

CAPPS II deployment beginning in late Fall of 2002. 

CAPPS II will help reduce dependency on random passenger selection for 

additional screening at airports -- a significant contributor to the “hassle factor” 

that has animated public support for a possible registered passenger program. It 

should be noted that TSA is pursuing multiple actions to minimize the hassle 

factor for the traveling public. First and foremost, in a program tested at 

Baltimore-Washington International Airport, TSA redesigned passenger screening 

tools and procedures to decrease significantly passenger wait time at checkpoints. 

This new approach to passenger screening will be incorporated into the 

nationwide rollout of TSA screeners at the nation’s airports this year.

STATUS: Active.

ITEM #6. In consultation with the Administrator of the Federal Aviation 

Administration, consider whether to require all pilot licenses to incorporate a 

photograph of the license holder and appropriate biometric imprints.

Discussion: The combination of a photograph and biometric identifiers (e.g., 

fingerprints, retina scan) are features of the transportation worker identification 

card project discussed in Item # 2, above. Its implementation would mean that 

commercial pilots would have such a secure identification card. 

The FAA is currently considering whether it should also incorporate a photo 

requirement for the licenses it issues to general aviation pilots. In the general 

aviation pilot community, considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that for many 

pilot transactions, such as leasing an aircraft, there is a commonplace practice of 

requiring a pilot to show a government-issued identification together with a pilot 

license. 

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An FAA rulemaking team with TSA membership has been formed to consider a 

petition from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association to require pilots to carry 

a valid photo identification card with their pilot certificates. FAA anticipates 

issuing a formal notice to solicit public comment on this matter. 

STATUS: Active.

ITEM #7. Provide for the use of voice stress analysis, biometric, or other 

technologies to prevent a person who might pose a danger to air safety or 

security from boarding the aircraft of an air carrier or foreign air carrier in air 

transportation or intrastate air transportation.

Discussion: TSA interprets this item in the legislation to refer to various 

biometric technologies applied as security tools. TSA’s evaluation of the use of 

biometric tools as part of a secure transportation identification card has been 

discussed above. 

Voice stress analysis utilizes the physiological characteristics of a human voice 

pattern to infer malevolent or deceptive intent. This class of technologies has not 

yet been proven to be effective in an airport pre-flight setting. They are, however, 

the subject of various laboratory experiments or research projects. One such 

research project, monitoring physiological changes in the body, is being 

conducted with TSA support by Honeywell and the Mayo Clinic. 

The TSA is pursuing voice stress analysis by leveraging years of work done at the 

USAF Rome Laboratory in New York. The scope of effort is still being 

developed between TSA and Rome Labs, but it will include speaker recognition, 

for use in access control, as well as a survey of voice stress evaluations. It is 

expected that this survey will identify additional research activities that TSA 

might undertake in collaboration with DARPA regarding other physiological or 

image processing methods of suspicious behavior identification. 

The TSA is also evaluating facial recognition technology. TSA is one of the 

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sponsoring Federal organizations in a Facial Recognition Vendor Test being 

conducted to evaluate existing technologies of facial recognition algorithm 

vendors. This form of evaluation is the first step in determining the effectiveness 

of facial recognition technology. DARPA is actively sponsoring the development 

of improved facial recognition technology in their “Human Identity at a Distance” 

program. Through a TSA-DARPA collaborative research initiative (required in 

Section 137(d) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act), the TSA will be 

pursuing airport-oriented applications of DARPA research. One such proposed 

project is an anticipated “scenario evaluation” of the facial recognition in a 

simulated airport setting using test subjects behaving in pre-scripted roles. 

The use of video surveillance and facial recognition technology may ultimately 

prove useful in airport applications, but it would require maintenance of an 

appropriate photo watch-list -- a law-enforcement resource that would presumably 

be developed outside TSA. 

STATUS: Active.

ITEM #8. Provide for the use of technology that will permit enhanced instant 

communications and information between airborne passenger aircraft and 

appropriate individuals or facilities on the ground.

Discussion: TSA and FAA see enhanced air-ground communication as a high 

priority and are actively pursuing technological improvement in existing 

equipment to achieve this objective. 

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) is a 

voice and signal service for both air traffic control and air carrier company 

communications that provides data link services like Terminal Doppler Weather 

Radar information stored in the form of text and character graphic messages. 

Pilots can access these programs or an airline can choose to send forced messages 

from its host to an aircraft. Both United and American ground stations sent vital 

information to their aircraft on September 11th. The system currently is an uplink 

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only and not suitable for two-way communication or emergency call capability. 

Other equipment installed on Boeing and Airbus aircraft as part of the Future Air 

Navigation System will be evaluated for use in emergencies.

Several services are used at 57 airports where voice frequency congestion is 

considered a serious problem. These applications uplink information via ACARS 

and VHF, and have significantly reduced communications traffic on crowded 

voice frequencies. A request-reply initiated by the flight deck is under 

consideration. For example, in the case of Flight Information Services, a groundbased service provider can receive a downlinked request for weather products, 

compile the requested information, and uplink it to the requesting aircraft for 

display. It is conceivable that such traffic could contain emergency or security 

related information exchanges. Such avenues are being explored but 

technological challenges remain.

Ensuring continuous transponder communication with air traffic control following 

a hijacking remains a major concern. A major redesign could be required, but we 

have learned about possible modifications that could be accomplished more 

quickly. These are being examined along with other alternatives that would allow 

setting and locking-in the hijacking code so that the hijacker cannot disable it. A 

panic button that initiates the hijacking code in an emergency situation with its 

own rechargeable power source, and an independent transponder that cannot be 

disabled by the hijacker are also being considered. Specialized equipment for 

Federal Air Marshals, in addition to standard issue cell phones, is under 

consideration.

STATUS: Active.

III. CONCLUSION

Work on six of the eight items listed under Section 109 of the Aviation and 

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Transportation Security Act will continue either as separate projects or as part of 

larger security enhancement efforts. Many of these topics will be regularly 

discussed with Members of Congress informally and in Congressional oversight 

hearings in the coming months. A second report on the actions regarding each of 

the six active areas of focus will be made in May 2003, as required by law. 

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