John Kerry: “today I filed an amendment which would appropriate the necessary funds to require the Department of Homeland Security to…”

“today I filed an amendment which would appropriate the necessary funds to require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a pilot program to test entry document verification technology. This technology allows border agents to quickly check travel document such as drivers' licenses, passports, and visas against a stored database of legitimate domestic and international travel documents. L1 Communications, a company with a plant in Wilmington, MA, is helping produce this technology and would be an eligible company for this funding. The 9/11 Commission Report stated that ``for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.'' The report concluded that ``better technology and training to detect terrorist travel documents are the most important immediate steps to reduce America's vulnerability to clandestine entry.'' It recommended that the Government develop a strategy to thwart terrorist travel that would incorporate better document authentication technology. Unfortunately, the technology that Customs and Border Protection, CBP, uses to authenticate travel documents is no better now than on 9/11. The absence of advanced document authentication technology often forces border agents to eyeball travel documents--a makeshift approach that has proven to be inadequate.”