SENATE DISCUSSES LACK OF MARITIME SECURITY

Aug 1, 2001 12:00 PM

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) said a one-size-fits-all approach will not work when it comes to protecting seaports in the United States at a hearing by the Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held last month.

Security at U.S. seaports, according to government and industry officials, desperately needs to be bolstered to defend against terrorist attack, drug trafficking, smuggling and up to $12 billion in cargo theft each year.

Although security at the nation's airports and land borders has been improved in recent years, there is no single federal agency that oversees security at the nation's 300 ports, said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina).

Hollings points out that the federal government merely supplies the human presence of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“It is amazing to think that when you or I walk through an international airport, we will walk through a metal detector, our bags will be x-rayed, Customs will interview us and may check our bags,” Hollings said. “However, at a U.S. seaport, you could import a 48-foot truckload of cargo and have at least a 98 percent chance of not even being inspected. It just doesn't seem right.”

Hollings' bill, the Port and Maritime Security Act, would authorize the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a task force on port security and work with the private sector to develop solutions.

Maritime Security Council executive director Kim Petersen endorses and supports the bill.

“It is vital for the members of this Committee to understand [most] intelligence relating to maritime crime comes from the industry itself,” Petersen said. “But information-sharing among law-enforcement agencies needs to be improved.”

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