Collins pushes for security funds Grant program of $400M sought for all ports, not just high-risk cities

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is pushing for port security funds to be disbursed to all ports, not just ones that are considered to be at a high risk for terrorist attack.

Her GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act includes a provision for a $400 million competitive grant program that all ports would be eligible for. President Bush and the Department of Homeland Security favor disbursing $600 million to ports at higher risk, such as those in California, New Jersey and New York.

The head of the ports and transportation in Portland agreed with Collins in testimony Wednesday during a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.

Capt. Jeffery Monroe said federal money for security initiatives should be given to all states. Otherwise, smaller ports like Portland would be hard-pressed to cover all the security mandates the federal government has put in place since Sept. 11.

“Not everybody is as wealthy as many of the major port authorities,” said Monroe, who is director of Portland’s Department of Ports and Transportation. “And many times municipal ports like ours or state-owned ports have minimal resources. In regional centers such as Portland we would be unable to comply with the maritime security act without grant support. We’re very fortunate to have received $3.5 million, which otherwise would have had to been borne by the taxpayers of the city of Portland.”

Collins’ bill also calls for creating a voluntary program that would give cargo companies incentives for complying with more stringent security measures. Benefits would include priority processing for security searches and streamlined billing of customs duties.

“Seaports are more than waterfront facilities,” said Collins, who chairs the committee. “They are crucial links in a supply chain that includes all modes of transportation around the world. They also are profoundly and unacceptably at risk.”

Collins said that some 95 percent of U.S. foreign trade, worth $1 trillion, enters through the country’s ports annually. Some 8,555 vessels make more than 55,000 calls on U.S. ports each year. About 800 million tons of goods are transported in more than 11 million containers.

Only 5.4 percent of those containers are scanned before they leave the port. Collins and the act’s cosponsors, Sens. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Norm Coleman, R-Minn., want to see all containers scanned by the end of next year.

“We cannot eliminate the risk of terrorist attack, but better supply chain security can build a stronger shield against terrorism without hampering trade,” Collins said.

Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Michael P. Jackson said at the hearing that 100 percent inspection on such short notice was impractical. Scanning equipment could not be produced fast enough to meet those goals, he said. Jackson assured the committee that his department was working hard to improve the situation and that by the end of 2007 some 98 percent of all containers would be searched for radiation. The other 2 percent would be covered by more random inspection.

Jackson’s reference to radiation was timely in light of the disclosure last week that undercover investigators breached security and slipped nuclear material into the U.S.

The “GreenLane” in Collins’ act comes from an initiative to give incentives to importers who allow their products in foreign countries to be monitored from the time they leave the factory until they are loaded onto a ship. This would speed up the shipping process for participants, while heightening security, advocates say.