[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 27, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6306-S6307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mrs. Murray):
  S. 3659. A bill to reauthorize certain port security programs, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the SAFE Port 
Reauthorization Act of 2010. This bill extends important programs that 
protect our nation's critical shipping lanes and seaports from attack 
and sabotage.
  The SAFE Port Reauthorization Act of 2010 is co-sponsored by my 
colleague, Senator Murray. Senator Murray and I drafted the original 
SAFE Port Act in 2005, leading to its enactment in 2006. I am pleased 
that she has again joined me to extend and strengthen this important 
law. Several stakeholders have expressed their support for our efforts, 
including the American Association of Port Authorities, the National 
Retail Federation, and the National Association of State Boating Law 
Administrators.
  The scope of what we need to protect is broad. America has 361 
seaports--each vital links in our Nation's transportation network. Our 
seaports move more than 95 percent of overseas trade. In 2009, U.S. 
ports logged 68,000 ports-of-call by foreign-flagged vessels, bringing 
9.8 million shipping containers to our shores.
  The largest 21 ports handle 98 percent of the shipping container 
traffic. Indeed, nearly 60 percent of all container-ship calls are made 
in just three States--California, New York, and Georgia--but this 
container traffic arrives at many points across the United States, from 
Maine to Hawaii.
  Coming from a State with three international cargo ports--including

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Portland, the largest port by tonnage in New England--I am keenly aware 
of the importance of seaports to our national economy and to the 
communities in which they are located.
  Because seaports are flourishing, our harbors operate as vital 
centers of economic activity; they also represent vulnerable targets. 
Shipping containers are a special source of concern.
  A single obscure container, hidden among a ship's cargo of several 
hundred containers, could be used to hide a squad of terrorists or a 
dirty bomb. In other words, a container could be turned into a 21st-
Century Trojan horse.
  The shipping container's security vulnerabilities are so well known 
that it has also been called ``the poor man's missile,'' because for 
only a few thousand dollars, a terrorist could ship one across the 
Atlantic or the Pacific to a U.S. port.
  The contents of such a container don't have to be something as 
complex as a nuclear or biological weapon. As former Customs and Border 
Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner told The New York Times, a single 
container packed with readily available ammonium sulfate fertilizer and 
a detonation system could produce ten times the blast that destroyed 
the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
  Whatever the type of weapon, an attack on one or more U.S. ports 
could cause great loss of life and large numbers of injuries; it could 
damage our energy supplies and infrastructure; it could cripple 
retailers and manufacturers dependent on incoming inventory; and it 
could hamper our ability to move and supply American military forces 
fighting against the forces of terrorism.
  I have had the opportunity to visit seaports across the country and, 
as one looks at some of the nation's busiest harbors, one sees what a 
terrorist might call ``high-value targets.'' Ferries move thousands of 
people daily. Large and sprawling urban populations are situated around 
the ports. At some locations, there are large sports stadiums nearby as 
well.
  Add up those factors and one realizes immediately the death and 
destruction that a ship carrying a container hiding a weapon of mass 
destruction could inflict at a single port.
  Of course, a port can be a conduit for an attack as well as a target. 
A container with dangerous cargo could be loaded on a truck or rail 
car, or have its contents unpacked at the port and distributed to 
support attacks elsewhere. In 2008, we saw that the port in Mumbai, 
India, offered the means for a gang of terrorists to launch an attack 
on a section of the city's downtown. That attack killed more than 170 
people and wounded hundreds more.
  To address these security threats, our bill would reauthorize the 
SAFE Port Act cargo security programs that have proven to be 
successful: the Automated Targeting System that identifies high-risk 
cargo; the Container Security Initiative that ensures high-risk cargo 
containers are inspected at ports overseas before they travel to the 
United States; and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or 
C-TPAT, that provides incentives to importers to enhance the security 
of their cargo from point of origin to destination.
  The bill would also strengthen the C-TPAT program by providing new 
benefits, including voluntary security training to industry 
participants and providing participants an information sharing 
mechanism on maritime and port security threats, and by authorizing 
Customs and Border Protection to conduct unannounced inspections to 
ensure that security practices are robust. The cooperation of private 
industry is vital to protecting supply chains, and C-TPAT is a 
necessary tool for securing their active cooperation in supply chain 
security efforts.
  The bill also would extend the competitive, risk-based, port security 
grants that have provided $1.5 billion to improve the security of our 
ports. An authorization for the next 5 years at $400 million per year 
is a continued major commitment of resources, but it is fully 
proportional to what is at stake, and a priority that we cannot ignore.
  In addition to continuing and strengthening critical programs, the 
bill also would expand the America's Waterway Watch Program to promote 
voluntary reporting of suspected terrorist activity or suspicious 
behavior against a vessel, facility, port, or waterway. While the 
program has proven valuable in ports throughout the country, the 
legislation would broaden its scope and increase public awareness 
through boating education and industry stakeholder meetings coordinated 
by the Coast Guard and its Reserve and Auxiliary components. The 
America's Waterway Watch Program has received strong endorsements from 
numerous professional boating associations for the enhanced situational 
awareness it will bring to our nation's ports and waterways.
  Our bill would protect citizens from frivolous lawsuits when they 
report, in good faith, suspicious behavior that may indicate terrorist 
activity against the United States. It builds on a provision from the 
2007 homeland security law that encourages people to report potential 
terrorist threats directed against transportation systems by protecting 
people from those who would misuse our legal system in an attempt to 
chill the willingness of citizens to come forward and report possible 
dangers.
  In addition, this legislation enhances the research and development 
efforts to improve maritime cargo security. The demonstration project 
authorized by this law would study the feasibility of using composite 
materials in cargo containers to improve container integrity and deploy 
next generation sensors.
  This legislation also addresses the difficulties in administering the 
mandate of x-raying and scanning for radiation all cargo containers 
overseas that are destined for the United States by July 2012. Until x-
ray scanning technology is proven effective at detecting radiological 
material and not disruptive of trade, requiring the x-raying of all 
U.S. bound cargo, regardless of its risk, at every foreign port, is 
misguided and provides a false sense of security. It would also impose 
onerous restrictions on the flow of commerce, costing billions with 
little additional security benefit.
  Under the original provisions of the SAFE Port Act, all cargo 
designated as high-risk at foreign ports is already scanned for 
radiation and x-rayed. In addition, cargo entering the U.S. at all 
major seaports is scanned for radiation. These security measures 
currently in place are part of a layered, risk-based method to ensure 
cargo entering the U.S. is safe.
  This legislation would eliminate the deadline for 100 percent x-
raying of containers if the Secretary of Homeland Security certifies 
the effectiveness of individual security measures of that layered 
security approach. This is a more reasonable method to secure our cargo 
until a new method of x-raying containers is proven effective.
  The SAFE Port Reauthorization Act of 2010 will help us to continue an 
effective, layered, coordinated security system that extends from point 
of origin to point of destination, and that covers the people, the 
vessels, the cargo, and the facilities involved in our maritime 
commerce. It will continue to address a major vulnerability in our 
homeland security critical infrastructure while preserving the flow of 
goods on which our economy depends.

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