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Imagine an ordinary shipping container, labeled as furniture, that is loaded onto a freighter in the middle of the night at the Jakarta Container Port, Indonesia's largest seaport. Instantly, it joins thousands of other weathered cargo boxes bound for a West Coast destination. But tucked in among the teak chairs and hand-carved tables sits a small box, no larger than a carry-on suitcase. In it is a dirty bomb, undetectable in its lead case. Imagine that one week later, this same container is off-loaded onto a dock in Oakland and the bomb is detonated in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District, rendering it uninhabitable for 30 years.
This is not a hypothetical nightmare scenario. This is a real threat that we must address. If there is a silver lining to the Dubai Ports World debacle, it is that it awakened us from a security slumber and focused our attention on the safety of America's most vulnerable assets -- her seaports.
More than 95 percent of U.S. foreign trade, totaling more than $1 trillion annually, comes through America's 361 ports. In 2005, some 14 million 20-foot shipping containers entered the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Together with the ports of San Francisco/Oakland, these three shipping hubs account for nearly 47 percent of all containers brought into the country.
So it is easy to see how a major attack on a U.S. port would devastate our economy immediately. Groups such as al Qaeda have made it clear that one of their goals is to inflict massive economic losses on the United States and its allies. Few targets are as inviting as our seaports, which remain America's Achilles' heel.
That's why U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Sacramento, chair of the Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cyber-security Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, and I, joined by 44 of our colleagues, introduced legislation last week to enhance port and supply-chain security and are urging Congress to act quickly, because time is working against us.
Port security must be layered, with measures built in at every step in the supply chain. It is impossible to hand search every container entering the country without bringing trade to a halt. Our bill adopts a strategic approach that pushes out our borders and prevents bad actors and hazardous materials from reaching American soil. Among other steps, it will authorize the Container Security Initiative, a program used to identify and examine maritime containers at foreign ports that pose a risk for terrorism before they are shipped. If a dirty bomb is detected at a U.S. port, it could already be too late.
For too long, port security has had to compete for funding with other transit sectors, such as rail and aviation. The Security and Accountability For Every (SAFE) Port Act would create a risked-based, multiyear-funding stream for port-security projects, something port operators tell us they desperately need. The annual grants would come from duties already collected by Customs and Border Protection.
Some good proposals have been introduced in Congress since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but are languishing. Now that Congress is focused, our bill is moving and should be considered by the full House in late April. Companion legislation introduced by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, is also moving through the Senate.
As Lungren said when we announced this legislation, "This bill marks the end of a lack of urgency. This is not a bill we're introducing for the purpose of making a statement. This is a bill we're introducing for the purpose of making a law.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County), is the ranking member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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