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Common base-access rules unlikely until 2012

The Defense Department said it cannot meet a Jan. 1 deadline to craft a defensewide policy for allowing entry to installations and is asking for more time.

Congress has ordered standard access rules, including policies for who is allowed to enter and how visitors are screened, to be in place by the start of the 2009 calendar year, but Pentagon officials, citing a variety of hurdles, said they don’t expect to be ready until Oct. 1, 2012.

One problem: Some identity verification procedures require coordination with other federal agencies, such as special programs to identify truckers, electronic passport screening for foreign visitors, and Terrorist Watch List improvements, defense officials said in an April 25 notice to the House and Senate armed services committees.

A second problem is the need for procedures to screen civilians who have no military affiliation and are just passing through military land. In some cases, people need access to travel on highways through bases. In other cases, local emergency vehicles need to pass through parts of bases to serve civilian populations.

Some installations are home to national cemeteries visited by the public, and the military also needs to find a way to screen public transportation, such as transit buses or taxis, to allow public school buses to pass through.

Defense officials said they expect the common policy for base entry will require the hiring and training of new people using new equipment, which takes time and money.

All of that means meeting the Jan. 1 deadline “is not physically feasible,” defense officials said.

The demand for common access standards was included in the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, which became law in January. Lawmakers want a defensewide policy for determining who can visit a base, what kind of authorization is needed and what level of access will be granted.

The call for a common policy comes after complaints from businesses, military retirees and civilians who live near military bases about disparities between bases that make it easy to visit some installations and extremely difficult to enter others.

Under the new law, military personnel and civilian workers and families living on military bases are supposed to get expedited access, while other visitors are supposed to receive greater scrutiny to determine if they pose a security risk.

The law provides that some bases may have tighter security than others because they host “particularly sensitive facilities,” but basic screening requirements should be the same at all bases.