From USA Today.  Kinda interesting idea...

Security, minus the hassle

After 14 months of struggling to balance the nation's need for tighter airport security with the public's desire for less-hassled travel, the federal government is eyeing a plan based on the logic behind toll roads: Time means money to busy travelers, so many will pay for added convenience.

A ''registered-traveler'' program, which the government plans to test this summer, would allow fliers to avoid some security screening at airports if they pay a fee for background checks and an ID card.

The biggest plus of the plan, announced last week, is that it's voluntary. Interested fliers would agree upfront to allow the government access to personal information.

That's an improvement over another government plan to assign all passengers a security-risk rating by tapping into their personal data. Privacy advocates, airlines and some members of Congress have criticized that approach for being intrusive. Last month, the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress' investigative arm, said the program could make financial and other private records vulnerable to government misuse and computer hackers.

A voluntary program could allay some privacy concerns, while moving to alleviate two other air security problems. For frequent business fliers, the plan promises to reduce secondary security checks and speed them through airports. It also could free up the government, which screens millions of fliers a day, to focus attention on those who pose the greatest risks.

Like any security scheme, the plan's success depends on the details. For now, many remain sketchy:

* The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has not said how extensive background checks would be or how a traveler could appeal if wrongly denied a card.

* While the TSA says registered travelers would get cards with a scanned-in fingerprint or hard-to-forge identifier, it hasn't explained how it would prevent a terrorist from using false data to obtain a valid card.

* The TSA has not said how much a card would cost. The GAO estimated in a 2002 report that extensive background checks might cost about $150 per traveler.

That is a price many warriors of the skies would pay in return for less airport-security aggravation. And it is a smart step for the TSA as it refines its efforts to improve the screening of all passengers.

If the scheme can help speed travelers to their destinations and bolster security, fliers and the government will benefit.