Security

As of January 23, 2007, everybody, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air into the U.S. will be required to present a valid passport or other accepted travel document. This applies to passengers traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda; children and infants are included.

This travel initiative, known as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative or WHTI, will ultimately affect all United States citizens entering or re-entering the United States by air, sea and land. It will also affect certain foreign nationals who currently are not required to present a passport to travel to the United States by air or sea. This includes most Canadian citizens and citizens of Bermuda and Mexico.

On December 12, 2003, the President signed into law the Vision 100—Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act. Section 611 of the Act requires TSA to "issue final regulations to ensure the security of foreign and domestic aircraft repair stations" within 240 days (by August 8, 2004).

On February 27, 2004, the TSA held a public meeting concerning repair station security, and asked the questions below. Written responses to the questions were due by March 29, 2004 to the DOT Docket Management System (docket TSA-2004-17131). TSA said that it will later propose security rules.

The Association's testimony was presented at the February TSA meeting by Christian A. Klein, ARSA Executive Vice President (see Repair Station Security: Key Documents).