CongressDaily

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s top customs official yesterday defended the administration’s strategy to safeguard against terrorist attacks through cargo entering the United States, in the face of criticism from Democratic members of a House panel who charged the plan left serious breaches in the nation’s security (see GSN, June 12).

Robert Bonner, commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in the new Homeland Security Department, touted agreements with the host nations of 19 of the 20 largest-shipping ports to U.S. shores that allow U.S. Customs agents stationed overseas to prescreen containers identified as high-risk, in a hearing of the House Homeland Security Infrastructure and Border Security Subcommittee.

Senior subcommittee Democrat Jim Turner (Texas), however, charged that Customs was not vigilant enough in questioning entrants to the United States across its Mexican and Canadian borders, citing findings from GAO in which investigators were able to enter this country with forged identification.

Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) assailed Bonner because Customs does not screen U.S.-bound cargo traveling on passenger jets before it enters the United States.  Bonner replied that this was the jurisdiction of the Transportation Safety Administration, not Customs.

Of the 20 largest ports, the exception that has not signed an agreement under Custom’s Container Security Initiative is Kaohsiung, China, according to the Customs bureau.  In addition, Customs has no agreements with Latin American countries, but these might be targeted in a second phase of the program announced by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge last week, Bonner said.

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