Transportation workers at the Wilmington, Del., port on Monday began enrolling in a long-sought identification card program designed to secure vulnerable areas of seaports and sea vessels from terrorists and other criminals.

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential program was first mandated in the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 and then again in the Security and Accountability For Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006.

To enroll in the program, longshoremen, port workers, truckers and other transportation workers have to submit biographical and biometric information, undergo a background check and pay a fee ranging from $105.25 to $132.50. The credentials are generally issued 10 days to several weeks after an application is completed and are valid for five years.

Approximately 5,000 workers are expected to enroll at the Port of Wilmington over the next several weeks. In November, 11 more ports around the country will begin enrollment including: Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Houston and Port Arthur, Texas; Baton Rouge, La.; Honolulu, Hawaii; Oakland, Calif.; Tacoma, Wash.; Chicago/Calumet, Ill.; Providence, R.I.; and Savannah, Ga.

TSA expects more than 1 million transportation workers who need access to secured areas of sea ports to apply for the TWIC card by the end of 2008.

“The start of enrollment is one more step in our effort to prevent persons who are a threat from gaining access to secure areas of port facilities,” said Maurine Fanguy, TWIC program director for the Transportation Security Administration, in a press release. “We appreciate the support of our partners at the Port of Wilmington for helping make one of the world’s most advanced interoperable biometric systems a reality.”

The news out of Delaware was cautiously welcomed by key lawmakers.

“We finally got some movement on what the department plans to do in rolling out the TWIC card,” said House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., during a phone interview. “Now there are still a lot of problems with it, but this is the first real movement with addressing timelines and other things as established by Congress. Clearly the challenges with the card are still there, and we think the department still has not performed to a acceptable level.”

Getting the TWIC program off the ground is one of the top priorities Thompson would like to see DHS accomplish before the administration turns over in January 2009.

Key challenges that remain for TWIC include: rolling out the program at the nation’s riskiest seaports and developing a stationary card reader hardy enough to survive at a seaport.

The U.S. Coast Guard will be pilot testing card readers at four seaports and two sea vessels some time in 2008. The ports include: The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., the Port of NewYork/New Jersey and the Port of Brownsville in Texas. Participating vessel operators sail out of Los Angeles and Annapolis, Maryland.

All of the pilot locations have received grant awards from FEMA’s port security grant program to pay for TWIC card readers. Manufacturers are currently reprogramming or building new card readers to meet the requirements of a technological specification released in September 2007. Once suitable readers are developed the pilot can go forward.

Matthew M. Johnson can be reached at mjohnson@cq.com.