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TSA Backs Off Registered Traveler Fee Hike

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 25, 2006

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Registered Traveler is back in the saddle again.

After a strong protest from companies planning to promote the advance-screening program -- designed to speed members through airport security lines -- the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has dropped to plans to impose a $70 fee to offset the salaries of additional screeners.

Backers of the program say such hires are not needed.

The TSA backed down after a lengthy meeting with company officials who claimed the projected $200 annual fee would be too steep for millions of potential applicants.

The fee, primarily for an anti-terrorism background check, is now $30 -- plus whatever individual companies will charge passengers who enroll. The typical company fee is in the neighborhood of $80.

An additional $20 surcharge is possible if the TSA decides to tack on a criminal background check as well as the anti-terrorism check. Even if it does, the $130 total is much more affordable than $200.

Registered Traveler, operating as a pilot program in Orlando for more than a year, has nearly two dozen airports anxious to add the system. Many of them hope to do so before year's end.

Companies operating the program, such as the New York-based Verified Identity Pass, will issue ID cards bearing fingerprints of members. New technology, now in the testing stages, will determine whether passengers can pass through security without doffing coats and shoes -- which will also speed up the process.

Another possible breakthrough is an on-site fingerprint sample, designed to detect explosives residue on the hands of passengers.

Last week's meeting at TSA headquarters in Arlington, Va. included Kip Hawley, the agency's chief executive, and executives of companies that complained about its proposed fee hike.

Public complaints about higher prices also contributed to the TSA's decision to rescind the rate hike, according to participants at the meeting.

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