White House Resists Cargo-Screening Law
Jim Abrams, Associated Press - Auguest 23, 2007
The specter of a nuclear bomb, hidden in a cargo container, detonating in an American port has prompted Congress to require 100 percent screening of U.S.-bound ships at their more than 600 foreign starting points.The White House and shippers maintain that the technology for scanning 11 million containers each year doesn't exist, and say the requirement could disrupt trade. Current procedures including manifest inspections at foreign ports and radiation monitoring in U.S. ports are working well, they contend.
Nonetheless, President Bush earlier this month signed the measure into law, praising its shift of funds to states and cities at higher risk of terrorism attack and saying he will work with lawmakers to ensure the cargo screening provisions don't impede commerce.
Scanning containers at their point of origin in other countries is a highlight of that law, intended to fulfill recommendations of the 9/11 Commission for safeguarding the United States from terrorist attack. It sets a five-year deadline for having the system in place but - recognizing the technology might not be ready - gives the Homeland Security secretary the authority to extend that deadline by two-year increments.
"If a terrorist manages to conceal a weapon of mass destruction in a shipping container, it must be discovered long before that container reaches our shore," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in support of the measure.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a chief proponent, said the costs and complexity involved in the new system pale beside the devastating effect of a nuclear attack launched from a big city port. "The truth is, we cannot afford not to do it."
H.R. 1, Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, was the first bill passed by the House, and was signed into law by President Bush on August 3rd with the requirement that 100% of seaborne containers bound for the U.S. be scanned before they leave foreign ports within five years. The conference report also passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 371-40, after being stalled for years in the previous Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke in favor of bill before final passage:
| Speaker Pelosi: "Today, we will pass the final version of this bipartisan bill. We will send it to the President for the signature which we expect that he will apply to it. And when we do, we will have done in 6 months what previous Congresses failed to do in nearly 6 years. We could not have accomplished this without the courage and determination of those whose loved ones were lost on September 11. The families of 9/11 turned their grief into strength and advocacy, and that made America safer. Implementing the recommendations will fundamentally change the way the President and the Congress deal with matters related to terrorism -- making us more unified and more effective." |