DHS Considers Merging PreCheck and Global Entry

PreCheck or Global Entry?

After years of asking which is the better deal for them, travelers may no longer have to decide.

Transportation Security Administration Administrator David Pekoske told reporters the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is mulling the possibility of merging its two trusted traveler programs, which help ease air travel headaches for frequent travelers.

According to a report at Politico, Pekoske said he and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan were taking a "good, hard look" at the possibility of combining the two programs.

Industry experts, including the American Society of Travel Agents, applaud the idea.

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“Much depends on the details of how this would work and what its impact would be on travel agencies and their clients, but at first blush, this sounds like a fantastic idea,” said Eben Peck, Executive Vice President, Advocacy - American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA). “Having two trusted traveler programs with similar costs, benefits and application procedures has proved to be, at times, confusing and frustrating for travelers. A single program allowing travelers to get through the airport screening process quickly would be a welcome development and we urge DHS to move this concept forward.”

PreCheck, the program that allows travelers to whisk quickly through airport security, is administered by the TSA. Global Entry, which is managed by CBP, offers many of the benefits of PreCheck but also speeds international travelers through the customs and immigration process when returning to the United States.

"If you look at it from a business perspective, I have a separate infrastructure that manages TSA PreCheck enrollments,” said Pekoske. “He has a separate infrastructure that manages global entry enrollments. And that's, I think, a big duplication of efforts sometimes in the very same airport."

The programs jointly have about 12 million members. Both CBP and TSA would like to see that figure grow, which they believe could happen if the two programs are merged.

Pekoske also told reporters that combining the two programs would allow the two agencies to better share technologies and data. Global Entry, for example, utilizes facial recognition technology not available to the TSA. Merging the two programs would allow TSA to tap into that extra security measure.

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TSA has been under fire recently, after failing to detect 80 percent of test weapons smuggled through security checkpoints in a test by undercover inspectors from Homeland Security. The TSA also recently rolled out new security measures, which include having passengers place all electronic items larger than a cell phone in a separate bin, prompting worries that the extra security could slow down travel during the already busy holiday season.

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