September 8, 2006: The Port Security Act

Yesterday, the Senate passed the FY 2007 Defense Appopriations Act 98-0.  From there, they moved on to consider the SAFE Ports Act.  Collins manages the bill on the floor.  There weren’t any votes today.  It was just speeches about the bill.

[10:06]
Sen. Stevens (AK) supports the bill.  He is thanking the Senators and staff who have worked on it.

[10:41]
Sen. Susan Collins (ME).  Eleven million shipping containers coming into this country each year.  Any one could be the Trojan Horse.  This legislation implements a system of security focusing on the port of origin, effective evaluation of each container, and some sort of supply chain security analysis.  Sen. Patty Murray (WA) has authored some sort of “Green Lane” certification where the merchants would meet certain requirements and in return get speedier security checks on their goods.

The bill does not purport to require an X-Ray of each container.   It seems the delay imposed by such widescale X-Rays is not acceptable.  We need to strike the right balance, says Collins.