[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 72 (Thursday, May 26, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H4119-H4120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF REDUCING CRIME AND TERRORISM AT AMERICA'S SEAPORTS ACT 
                                OF 2005

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, along with the gentleman from North Carolina 
(Mr. Coble), chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on 
Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, I am pleased to introduce the 
Reducing Crime and Terrorism at America's Seaports Act of 2005.
  There are 361 seaports in the United States that serve essential 
national interests by facilitating the flow of trade and the movement 
of cruise passengers, as well as supporting the effective and safe 
deployment of U.S. Armed Forces. These seaport facilities and other 
marine areas cover some 3.5 million square miles of ocean area and 
95,000 miles of coastline.
  Millions of shipping containers pass through our ports every month. A 
single container has room for as much as 60,000 pounds of explosives, 
10 to 15 times the amount in the Ryder truck used to blow up the Murrah 
Federal Building in Oklahoma City. When you consider that a single ship 
can carry as many as 8,000 containers at one time, the vulnerability of 
our seaports is alarming.
  Each year, more than 141 million ferry and cruise ship passengers, 
more than 2 billion tons of domestic and international freight and 3 
billion tons of oil move through U.S. seaports. Millions of truck-size 
cargo containers are off-loaded onto U.S. docks. Many seaports are 
still protected by little more than a chain link fence and, in far too 
many instances, have no adequate safeguards to ensure that only 
authorized personnel can access sensitive areas of the port. If we 
allow this system to continue unchecked, it is only a matter of time 
until terrorists attempt to deliver a weapon of mass destruction to our 
doorstep via ship, truck or cargo container.
  New reports by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' 
investigative arm, fault both the Customs-Trade Partnership Against 
Terrorism and the Container Security Initiative. C-TPAT allows 
international shippers to get quicker clearance through Customs in 
exchange for voluntary security measures. But the GAO said that the 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's vetting process was not thorough 
enough. It found that only 10 percent of the certified members had been 
validated through an actual physical inspection by the Agency. The rest 
had been certified by paperwork applications.
  As part of the recently passed Homeland Security authorization bill, 
the House took some important steps to improve the screening of cargo 
by expanding the Container Security Initiative and refocusing it, based 
on risk. But the truth is that not every container can be inspected, 
and we need to use other tools at our disposal to deter those who would 
use our seaports as a point of attack until we can inspect or somehow 
verify each container. Strengthening criminal penalties, as Chairman 
Coble and I are proposing with this bill, is one way we make our 
Nation's ports less vulnerable.
  The Reducing Crime and Terrorism at America's Seaports Act of 2005 
will fill a gaping hole in our defense against terrorism and make 
American ports, passengers and cargo safer. Our bill is substantially 
similar to bipartisan Senate legislation introduced earlier this year 
by Senators Biden and Specter and supported by other key members of the 
Judiciary Committee, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Orrin 
Hatch. The Senate version of this legislation has been reported 
favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting action by 
the full Senate.
  Our bill makes common-sense changes to our criminal laws and will 
help to close security gaps confronting our ports. The amendment will 
make it a crime to use a vessel to smuggle terrorists or dangerous 
materials, including nuclear material, into the U.S., impose stiff 
criminal penalties for providing false information to a Federal law 
enforcement officer at a port or on a vessel, and double the sentence 
of anyone who fraudulently gains access to a seaport.
  Our bill would also directly access several immediate threats by 
increasing penalties for smugglers who misrepresent illicit cargo. It 
would also bridge specific gaps in current Federal law by making it a 
crime for a vessel operator to fail to stop when ordered to

[[Page H4120]]

do so by a Federal law enforcement officer.
  Mr. Speaker, America's ports remain vulnerable and this Nation needs 
a multifaceted strategy to secure them and to deter those who would 
harm this country. The Reducing Crime and Terrorism at America's 
Seaports Act of 2005 is part of that strategy.
  I urge my colleagues to join Chairman Coble and me by cosponsoring 
this legislation.

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