Congress Passes U.S. Port Security Bill

Congress on Saturday passed legislation aimed at preventing weapons of mass destruction from entering the country through U.S. seaports, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 30).

The House voted 409-2 in favor of the bill early Saturday, which was approved by a voice vote in the Senate.  It now goes to President George W. Bush for signing.

The bill is a “major leap ahead” in protecting the United States against terrorism, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine).  The legislation includes $2 billion over five years for port security training and exercises, requires the nation’s 22 largest ports to install radiation detectors by the end of 2007, and mandates a pilot program to test nonintrusive cargo inspection technology at three ports overseas.

Democratic lawmakers argued that the bill should have included security measures for rail and mass transit systems.

“The terrorist attacks on rails and transit systems in Spain, London and Mumbai (Bombay) should be enough evidence to convince the Republican-led Congress that U.S. rails are dangerously vulnerable,” said Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) (Jim Abrams, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 30).

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