More and more federal non-employment statutes, regulations and programs are coming with strings attached for human resources professionals to grapple with. For instance, who would have expected that the federal plan for rescuing troubled financial institutions would have anything to do with immigration, that the federal stimulus statute would include whistleblower provisions and changes to COBRA benefits laws, or that consumer protection laws would contain whistleblower provisions? Now comes the Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program, which grew out of September 11 to help improve supply-chain security, and its employment-related provisions. CTPAT is a voluntary partnership program between the private sector and CBP to secure the supply chain for products entering commerce in the United States. Many view CTPAT certification as the equivalent of an ISO certification, and it can be a significant marketing tool. Companies that want to obtain CTPAT certification, in addition to implementing various security measures, must meet certain minimum criteria for personnel security including background checks, reference checks, exit interviews, procedures for providing employee ID, keys and fobs etc. If you are a human resources professional in the transportation and logistics industry, you should check with the business or operations side of your organization to find out whether your company is planning to participate in the CTPAT program so that you can get a jump on aligning your employee security procedures with the program’s requirements.