In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress rightly required new background checks for the nation’s 1.5 million port workers. Unfortunately, the checks, which became mandatory for all port workers this spring, rely on F.B.I. and state criminal records that are incomplete and out of date.
The bad data has been catastrophic for port workers across the country. According to a new report by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for workers, the federal government has mistakenly denied credentials to tens of thousands of people. They have either lost their jobs while awaiting clearance or gone without paychecks for six or seven months until the denials were finally reversed on appeal.
Congress can fix this problem by speeding up the approval process and requiring the F.B.I. to verify the accuracy of criminal records before issuing background reports.
