The registered traveler program is stalled indefinitely despite widespread support

But two and a half years later, what's now known as the "registered traveler" program (the term trusted was apparently deemed politically incorrect) is caught in a political quagmire only a Beltway insider could appreciate. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, and other officials have all said that they favor this plan, but Transportation Security Administration officials say they can't move ahead with it until the more controversial CAPPS II passenger-screening program is implemented. "The CAPPS II technology will provide the backbone for a registered traveler program," explains TSA spokesman Brian Turmail, who is now with the DOT. But with just $5 million earmarked by Congress for such an undertaking, he notes that even a prototype for the program could still be years away.

Inevitably, the private sector is stepping into the void. Airlines, for instance, are expanding the practice of designating special security lines for their best customers, sparing VIPs the long wait for passenger screening. And Steven Brill, a journalist who founded Court TV and recently wrote After, a book on security, is shopping around an identity card that could be used at airports and in public places such as railway stations and stadiums. The idea, in a nutshell, is this: Customers who pay a fee (Brill estimates $30 to $50, plus about $3 a month to keep the card current) and pass a background check by a private company would be issued a Verified Identity Card certifying them as pre-cleared at airport and other security checkpoints (fingerprints would be encoded on the card for identity verification).

To allay fears about misuse of the personal data his company would have access to, Brill proposes setting up an independent ombudsman to handle complaints. Even so, privacy advocates, including Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are concerned that there aren't enough safeguards against the creation of what he calls "a Big Brother card minted in the private sector." And the TSA, even if it doesn't run the program, would still have to authorize any technology used to screen passengers, which would further slow implementation of any private-sector solution.

How many travelers would be interested in a card such as Brill's is unclear: Frequent travelers are the surest bet. Of the estimated 100 million people who fly each year, fewer than 20 percent are bona fide road warriors (individuals who make at least 20 trips annually). Still, even if you only have to submit to friskings in your stocking feet a few times a year, an ID card like Brill's might be appealing.