3 Years Later, Implementation of 100% Maritime Scanning Mandate Still Elusive
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
August 3, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) lack of progress in implementing the 100 percent maritime cargo scanning requirement, as mandated by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-53), which was enacted into law three years ago today.
Chairman Thompson issued the following statement with the release of the letter:
“When Congress approved the 100% scanning mandate, the potential loss of life and economic disruption that would result from the detonation of a dirty bomb at a busy U.S. port was foremost in our minds. Three years later, the agency charged with implementing this important security provision has made no measurable progress. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security has expended its resources on campaigning against the 100% scanning mandate, a vital provision of the 9/11 Act that then-President Bush signed into law.”
Congressman Markey released the following statement:
“As many security experts have noted, the most likely way that Al Qaeda would target the United States with a nuclear weapon would be to smuggle it into the country. The millions of unscreened maritime cargo containers that enter our ports daily are a glaring vulnerability and a potential delivery device,” said Rep. Markey. “The 9/11 law requires that these containers are to be scanned before they cross the ocean headed for our shores, and it is vital that this law be carried out as Congress intended it.”
Congressman Nadler added the following statement:
“I am extremely concerned that the Department of Homeland Security is dragging its feet and making insufficient efforts to meet the 2012 deadline for 100% cargo scanning, as mandated by Congress,” said Rep. Nadler. “If the mandate is postponed or, God forbid, ignored altogether, we are faced with the ongoing threat of a catastrophic breach of security in American ports. Despite the possibility that terrorists could smuggle nuclear, chemical or biological weapons into the country, we currently scan only a pittance of the millions of shipping containers entering our ports each year. Chairman Thompson, Congressman Markey and I have worked hard to ensure that we are protected from such unacceptable dangers, and now the Administration must do its part.”
# # #
Media Contacts:
(Thompson) Dena Graziano or Adam Comis at (202) 225-9978
(Markey) Dan Reilly at (202) 225-2836
(Nadler) Ilan Kayatsky at (212) 367-7350
