Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide entification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide anyentification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining theirentity.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

Under the law that created TSA, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, the TSA administrator is responsible for overseeing aviation security (P.L. 107-71) and has the authority to establish security procedures at airports (49 C.F.R. § 1540.107). Passengers that fail to comply with security procedures may be prohibited from entering the secure area of airports to catch their flight (49 C.F.R. § 1540.105(a)(2).

This initiative is the latest in a series designed to facilitate travel for legitimate passengers while enhancing the agency's risk-based focus - on people, not things. Positivelyentifying passengers is an important tool in our multi-layered approach to security and one that we have significantly bolstered during the past 18 months.