Lungren, R-Gold River, said the legislation, called the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act, "is intended to prevent threats from ever reaching U.S. ports."

The legislation by Lungren and Harman, D-Venice, calls for spending about $800 million a year for the next five years to increase surveillance and inspections of cargo as it leaves for U.S. ports and as it arrives. Half that money would be for grants to port districts for security upgrades.

Lungren said the measure would ensure that 100 percent of cargo containers entering the United States are scanned for radioactive materials that might be bombs. Only about 1 percent of containers are scanned now.

Another provision would require that port employees who work in secure areas be checked against terrorist watch lists.

The legislation also would make available to cooperating foreign countries detection equipment that would scan cargo containers before they are shipped to the United States. Cargo ships at sea would be better tracked to ensure containers aren't tampered with en route to the United States.

Lungren, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee's economic security and infrastructure panel, said the "silver lining" behind the Dubai controversy is that it "has given us an opportunity to come together working for a single goal of securing our nation's ports."

The Dubai Ports World controversy emerged last month when a Bush administration panel said it was approving a deal in which the company, owned by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, would acquire a British-owned company - and with it, a contract to manage operations at six U.S. ports.

The deal was immediately denounced by congressional Republicans and Democrats, who vowed to block it legislatively. The controversy abated after the Dubai company announced last week that it would find a U.S. company to handle the American ports.

How sound that commitment is remained in doubt, however, and there was growing anxiety on Capitol Hill that the Dubai company, based on e-mails, may not immediately give up all its U.S. operations. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., threatened to move forward with legislation to block the deal.

At the news conference Tuesday on their port bill, Harman called the Dubai deal a "debacle." But Lungren is one of the few supporters of the deal in Congress, and in the past he has criticized other members of Congress for "knee-jerk" reactions to it.

Lungren did not comment about the deal Tuesday other than to cite the firestorm of criticism as one of the reasons that he thinks his ports bill will clear the Congress easily - and quickly.