Kathy Kraninger, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Screening Coordination, told reporters on Friday that the new rules for some of her office’s highest-profile projects should be published by the end of the year. Kraninger gave a rundown of the progress made in several of those programs, including:

Kraninger called the program “the biggest thing we’re working through and certainly the thing that’s gotten the most attention.” ESTA deals with how DHS processes foreign air passengers who can travel to America visa-free, because their countries are members of the Visa Waiver Program. It requires such travelers to fill out an online form with biographical and security information three days prior to departure.

That Web site went live Aug. 1 as ESTA’s rollout began, Kraninger said.

“As of yesterday, we’ve had over 22,000 applications and the vast majority of those have been approved, so we are where we thought we would be,” he said. We did expect that the vast majority of individuals would be able to travel as they did before.

With 15 million travelers a year travel entering the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program, Kraninger said the site is geared for heavy traffic.

ESTA enrollment is valid for two years, and is required for both domestic and international flights. Kraninger said the program’s goal is to replace older, paper forms collecting the same data. Doing it in advance, instead of at airports, is beneficial both to those who qualify and those who don’t, she said.

“Frankly we can save those individuals not eligible for travel from getting on a plane and arriving in the U.S. and finding out later that they are not eligible for entry and being turned away,” she said.

Since the Web site began taking applications, Kraninger said there have been a few denials, which were referred to the State Department for travel visas. One was denied the visa, she said, although she could not say why.

Kraninger said the initial rollout is a time for collecting feedback and identify kinks in the process. By October, DHS expects to have a fully capable system, and by November it expects to receive the congressionally mandated certification saying ESTA is fully operational.

DHS is continuing its piloting of 10-fingerprint collection for foreign nationals arriving at U.S. ports of entry, replacing the two-fingerprint system. While only 10 locations are now participating in the pilot, Kraninger said all airports of entry will use it by January.

She said a rule requiring airlines to collect biometric information from those exiting the country — which has met with strong resistance from airlines, who say it costs too much and isn’t their responsibility — will be published by the end of the year, and implemented within 180 days after.

“We have made tremendous strides, particularly in the past two years in the quality of that data,” she said. “The airlines have voiced their concerns about that and we will continue to work with them on it.  . . .  We have gone back to the airlines, particularly on the economic data, because they said there was a significant cost associated with this that we had not accounted for.”

DHS has also talked to the airlines about the possibility of grants to help pay some of the cost.

Kraninger said the airlines have gotten better about collecting data electronically and DHS has improved its methods of filtering out the “noise” of unnecessary information from U.S. citizens who leave the country and go to places where they don’t need passports.

Kraninger pointed out that collecting biometric data from those leaving the country is a congressional mandate.

“This is not a security priority for the department, as we look at all of the things that we’re looking at across the board,” she said, adding later that “we do realize that the integrity of the immigration system is important.”

The final rule for this program, which prescreens passengers against government terrorist “watch lists,” will also be published this year, Kraninger said.

“I’m very excited about seeing it implemented before we leave because it’s been a very long road,” she said.

The House Appropriations Committee has given DHS 10 certification requirements it has to follow, including creating a method of redress, conducting stress test of the system and showing a reduction in false positives. After the secretary makes those certifications, the Government Accountability Office will review them. DHS has been conducting thorough testing and working closely with GAO, Kraninger said.

Under the proposed rule, airlines have to ask passengers’ full names, dates of birth and gender, but people don’t have to give date of birth and gender, although Kraninger said “that would be helpful to us.”

Secure Flight would apply to both international and domestic flights, so it would really take over several government watch list functions, she said.

Since the State Department began issuing its new passport cards, a key new border-crossing credential under WHTI, almost 410,000 people have applied for them, Kraninger said.

WHTI eliminated the acceptance of oral declarations of citizenship at the Canadian border, requiring those entering the United States to bring approved identification. When it went into effect earlier this year, DHS said it was a “soft implementation,” where those lacking proper ID would not be turned away. Kraninger said DHS may stick with that strategy in the future.

“We have seen, frankly, from both U.S. citizens and Canadian citizens, just tremendous compliance with this,” she said. “We haven’t, as a public posture, moved to some sort of hard enforcement.”

From day one, compliance was at about 90 percent. Now it is at about 97 percent, Kraninger said. Customs and Border Protection will continue working with those who lack the proper ID.

Rob Margetta can be reached at rmargetta@cq.com.