Congress acts to delay Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative

Continued fallout from the $34.8 billion DHS spending plan awaiting Senate and House reconciliation. Lawmakers have listened to the concerns of the Canadian and Mexican governments, as well as those of technical experts, and have agreed to delay implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). WHTI, which required a tamper-proof ID card, called a PASS card, to cross the northern and southern borders, was a central recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. June 2009 is the new deadline. The change does not effect the 7 January 2007 deadline requiring Canadians arriving in the U.S. by air to have a passport.

Experts have long warned that the technology to read the cards was immature, and that the neccesary readers would not be ready by the January 2008 deadline. Critics also raised privacy concerns because the RFID-enabled cards would be vulnerable to “digital pick-pocketing” — the ability of hackers with the right equipment to pick up personal information off the card by simply walking within three or four feet of the individual carrying the card in his or her pocket. “This has been shaping up as a train wreck in slow motion,” Senator Patrick Leahy said Tuesday. “Poor planning and premature implementation of this system could clog our borders while making us even less secure.”

WHTI, of course, was just one element of the bill, which has been brutally debated over the past year but only came to a head with the approaching midterm elections. Other measures included:

BULLET POINTS

1. $1.2 billion for border fencing, vehicle barriers and technology to prevent illegal immigrants and criminals from sneaking into the country. Critics, however, believe illegal immigration is best solved by stemming the demand for illegal labor. “Certainly, what we’re doing at the border is helpful,” DHS chief Michael Chertoff said in a recent interview. “But if that’s the only thing that we do, it’s going to be very, very hard to sustain it”

2. An overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including giving the director a direct line to the president during catastrophes and ermergency disaster preparedness planning with response missions. The change will require the White House and Chertoff to choose who would lead the beefed-up FEMA: the current director, R. David Paulison; his boss, Undersecretary for Preparedness George W. Foresman; or someone else

3. Giving DHS the authority to shut down chemical plants that fail to meet security standards. The chemical industry fought hard — although eventaully losing — in the fight against the plan, but succeeded in inserting language barring DHS from requiring companies to switch to safer chemicals and exempting facilities such as drinking-water and wastewater plants

4. Purchasing nuclear detectors to scan shipping cargo and hiring more Coast Guard inspectors and Customs agents at seaports

-read more in Lara Jakes Jordan’s AP report; read more in Spencer Hsu’s Washington Post report