Lawmakers question if biometric passports will work

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. government agencies are moving ahead with plans to require biometric passports for travelers to and from the U.S., agency representatives said Wednesday, but some legislators questioned whether such efforts are enough to protect against terrorism.

Members of the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity questioned whether biometric passports would improve U.S. border security if countries aren't sufficiently checking identification before issuing passports.

Representative Christopher Cox, a California Republican and chairman of the full committee, also questioned representatives of the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about why the agencies aren't using fingerprints on passports. Even though the State Department is testing new U.S. passports that contain a 64KB memory chip, customs agents still use eyesight to check digital photographs embedded in the passports against the face of the passport holder, Cox noted.

"I'm struck ... by the misuse of the term, 'biometric,' with the use of a photograph," Cox said. "In my view, 'biometric' must include some measurement."

Digital photographs are the first step toward the use of biometric technologies on passports, answered Frank Moss deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs at the State Department. Although the memory chips on passports could eventually contain additional information, some privacy concerns, including the unauthorized scanning of passport chips, need to be addressed before more information is added to the chips, Moss said.

Facial recognition software shows promise, and could add more measurement to the process of identifying digital photographs, Moss added.

In addition, digital photographs were agreed upon as an interoperable specification by the International Civil Aviation Organization, said Elaine Dezenski, acting assistant secretary in the DHS Directorate for Border and Transportation Security. In many countries, there are cultural concerns about using fingerprints, causing the "perception that you're booking someone on a criminal charge," she said.

Cox and subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren, a California Republican, wondered whether the U.S. should yield to cultural concerns about fingerprints after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. "9-11 changed the world," Lungren said. "It seems to me we ought to be moving in the direction of the biometric that would best protect us."

Cox and other subcommittee members also questioned if tamper-proof digital photographs and other biometric technologies will solve a larger problem of lax security checks. "The goal is not to give terrorists tamper-proof fake IDs," Cox said.

Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, also criticized a June 15 DHS directive that gives 27 countries on the U.S. Visa Waiver Program an extension until October 2006 to comply with requirements that passports have embedded digital photographs and be machine readable. The Visa Waiver Program allows residents of 27 countries to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa.

Thompson compared the DHS extended deadline to sitting at home and waiting for a cable TV service call.

"When I start to think of all the deadlines the department has missed or moved, I feel like I'm waiting for the cable guy to install my cable between the hours of noon and five," Thompson said. "You don't know when he is coming, if he is coming, or how many times you are going to have to call to get service."

Some of the Visa Waiver countries were having trouble meeting the deadline, Dezenski said.