McClatchy DC Logo

Senate approves bill to tighten port security | McClatchy Washington Bureau

×
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Subscriber Services

    • All White House
    • Russia
    • All Congress
    • Budget
    • All Justice
    • Supreme Court
    • DOJ
    • Criminal Justice
    • All Elections
    • Campaigns
    • Midterms
    • The Influencer Series
    • All Policy
    • National Security
    • Guantanamo
    • Environment
    • Climate
    • Energy
    • Water Rights
    • Guns
    • Poverty
    • Health Care
    • Immigration
    • Trade
    • Civil Rights
    • Agriculture
    • Technology
    • Cybersecurity
    • All Nation & World
    • National
    • Regional
    • The East
    • The West
    • The Midwest
    • The South
    • World
    • Diplomacy
    • Latin America
    • Investigations
  • Podcasts
    • All Opinion
    • Political Cartoons

  • Our Newsrooms

Latest News

Senate approves bill to tighten port security

Les Blumenthal - McClatchy Newspapers

    ORDER REPRINT →

September 14, 2006 03:00 AM

WASHINGTON—The Senate approved a port-security bill Thursday that its sponsors said would make the nation safer from terrorist attack, after it rejected a plan to inspect every inbound cargo container for nuclear weapons.

The measure, approved 98-0, would require installing radiation monitors at the country's 22 largest ports and would authorize a pilot program involving three foreign ports to scan all cargo containers headed to the United States.

It also would establish a new office within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate port security and would order the department to prepare a plan for getting cargo moving again after an attack. One study estimated that a 12-day shutdown of the ports could cost the U.S. economy $58 billion.

"We have done a lot to secure our ports, but they are still too porous," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "This bill represents a multipronged approach to plug the holes in our port security."

SIGN UP

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the bill's lead author, who has been pushing for tougher port security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said Senate approval cleared the way for possible final action before the end of the year.

"A big hurdle has been passed," Murray said. "It's a huge step in a very positive direction."

The House of Representatives has approved its own version of the bill, and a compromise will have to be negotiated. Congress is scheduled to recess in early October but could come back after the November elections to finish pending legislation.

Senate passage of the bill comes more than two years after the 9-11 commission concluded that the nation's ports could be more vulnerable to attack than commercial aviation. More than 95 percent of the nation's trade—worth nearly $1 trillion—flows through more than 360 U.S. ports every year. Virtually all of it is carried on 8,500 foreign-flagged vessels that make 55,000 calls at American ports annually.

About 5 percent of the nearly 11 million cargo containers that arrive in the United States annually is opened and inspected. Some are scanned for nuclear material.

Congress' Government Accountability Office has raised questions about the effectiveness of the program that identifies which "high-risk" containers are inspected and has expressed concern about the effectiveness of the radiation monitors now being used.

Efforts to pass a port-security bill had languished until an uproar last February over the disclosure that a Dubai company had been approved to operate a handful of U.S. ports.

The measure picked up more steam over the past few weeks as congressional Republicans have ratcheted up their national security agenda. Democrats said Republicans were scrambling to shore up their national security credentials for political reasons before the elections.

"Five years after 9-11, repeated failures by Bush Republicans have left our ports vulnerable and open to terrorist attack," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement.

Republicans dismissed such allegations.

"This is an important bill for our homeland security," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the lead Republican sponsor of the measure.

Murray said any political motivations for moving the bill weren't important.

"To me it doesn't matter," she said. "Getting it done is the right thing to do."

The Senate tabled, 61-37, an amendment offered by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that would have required that 100 percent of the cargo containers headed for the United States be scanned within four years. Shippers would have picked up the cost.

"What are we waiting for?" Schumer said. "This mandates we inspect all cargo—no pilot programs, no tests, all containers—for nuclear weapons."

Schumer said the Homeland Security Department had been "derelict" by not requiring 100 percent inspections, that the technology existed to do it and that the cost would be $8 per container, not much when considering that it cost $2,000 to ship a container from Hong Kong to the West Coast.

Collins said the bill would move toward 100 percent inspections when it was "proved and feasible." Doing it prematurely could create a massive backlog of containers waiting on the docks to be inspected, she said.

The 22 large ports that would receive radiation scanners handle about 98 percent of the containers that come into the United States. Schumer's amendment would have required that the scanning take place overseas, before the containers are shipped.

The bill would authorize almost $3.3 billion in port-security funding over the next six years and another $400 million in grants to individual ports. Since 9-11, seaports have sought more than $4.3 billion in federal aid for security. The Department of Homeland Security has provided about 20 percent of the amount requested, about $876 million.

———

(c) 2006, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Need to map

  Comments  

Videos

Nervous about hackers? Here’s what to do after a data breach

Democrats announce Green New Deal

View More Video

Trending Stories

Mitch McConnell pitches Kentucky’s Kelly Craft as Trump’s UN ambassador

February 21, 2019 11:50 AM

Fatalities from police chases climbing, could be higher than records indicate

February 21, 2019 12:00 AM

Vice President Mike Pence will go to Colombia to demand Maduro step down

February 21, 2019 10:07 AM

Gov. Matt Bevin dismisses his low poll numbers, welcomes Trump’s help

February 22, 2019 11:06 AM

Trump threatens to deport Venezuelan military officials’ families that have fled to Miami

February 22, 2019 07:21 PM

Read Next

Democrats say military projects are at risk as they prepare to defy Trump on wall

Congress

Democrats say military projects are at risk as they prepare to defy Trump on wall

By Lesley Clark

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 22, 2019 04:47 PM

Democrats charge that military projects from California to Kentucky could be imperiled by President Donald Trump’s push to declare an emergency declaration to build a wall at the border with Mexico. Republicans say it’s speculative and that a border wall is important.

KEEP READING

MORE LATEST NEWS

Gov. Matt Bevin dismisses his low poll numbers, welcomes Trump’s help

Congress

Gov. Matt Bevin dismisses his low poll numbers, welcomes Trump’s help

February 22, 2019 11:06 AM
Mitch McConnell pitches Kentucky’s Kelly Craft as Trump’s UN ambassador

Congress

Mitch McConnell pitches Kentucky’s Kelly Craft as Trump’s UN ambassador

February 21, 2019 11:50 AM
Fatalities from police chases climbing, could be higher than records indicate

Investigations

Fatalities from police chases climbing, could be higher than records indicate

February 21, 2019 12:00 AM
Republicans rally around Trump after McCabe asserts DOJ discussed removing the president

Congress

Republicans rally around Trump after McCabe asserts DOJ discussed removing the president

February 20, 2019 04:53 PM
Massive public lands bill expected to receive easy approval in the House

Congress

Massive public lands bill expected to receive easy approval in the House

February 20, 2019 12:54 PM
‘You’re my guy’: Top Senate Dem urges Jaime Harrison to challenge Lindsey Graham

Elections

‘You’re my guy’: Top Senate Dem urges Jaime Harrison to challenge Lindsey Graham

February 20, 2019 12:12 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

McClatchy Washington Bureau App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Newsletters
Learn More
  • Customer Service
  • Securely Share News Tips
  • Contact Us
Advertising
  • Advertise With Us
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story