USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005
USA PATRIOT AND TERRORISM PREVENTION REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2005)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Amendment No. 11 offered by Mr. Schiff:
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 1/2 minutes.
Mr. Chairman, earlier this year I introduced the Reducing Crime and Terrorism at America's Seaports Act of 2005 along with my colleague the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble), chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Our legislation is aimed at filling a gaping hole in our defense against terrorism and making America's ports, passengers and cargos safer.
Today, I offer the text of this important legislation as an amendment to the PATRIOT reauthorization bill, joined by my colleague the gentleman from North Carolina (Chairman Coble) of the Committee on the Judiciary, as well as the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes), another colleague on the Committee on the Judiciary.
There are 361 seaports in the United States that serve essential national interests by facilitating the flow of trade and the movement of cruise passengers, as well as supporting the effective and safe deployment of U.S. Armed Forces. These seaport facilities and other marine areas cover some 3.5 million square miles of ocean area and 95,000 miles of coastline.
Millions of shipping containers pass through our ports each month. A single container has room for as much as 60,000 pounds of explosives, 10 to 15 times the amount in the Ryder truck used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. When you consider that a single ship can carry as many as 8,000 containers at one time, the vulnerability of our seaports is alarming.
Many seaports are still protected by little more than a chain link fence and in far too many instances have no adequate safeguards to ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive areas of the port. If we allow this system to continue unchecked, it may be only a matter of time until terrorists attempt to deliver a weapon of mass destruction to our doorstep via truck, ship or cargo container.
Strengthening criminal penalties, as the gentleman from North Carolina (Chairman Coble) and I proposed with our bill and in this amendment, is one way we can make our Nation's ports less vulnerable by filling this hole in our defense against terrorism and making America's ports, passengers and cargo safer.
This amendment makes common sense changes to our criminal laws to deter and prevent terrorist attacks on our ports, our sea vessels, and cracks down on the theft and smuggling of cargo.
I want to be clear, our amendment is intended to go after terrorists, terrorist acts and other dangerous felons. There is no intention to reach accidents or other unintentional acts that might occur at seaports.
A substantially similar bipartisan version of our legislation has already been reported favorably by the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting action by the full Senate.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble), the chairman of the subcommittee and a lead cosponsor of this amendment. I want to thank the chairman for his important work to bring this issue before the House.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), and thank the chairman of the subcommittee. When I offered this originally as stand-alone legislation in connection with another bill as an amendment, the chairman offered to work with me on this further down the line; and every bit true to his word, he has been a great partner to work with on this. I want to thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Chairman Coble), and I want to thank our esteemed chairman of the full committee for their work on this.
The numbers are quite startling: 141 million ferry and cruise ship passengers, more than 2 billion tons of domestic international freight, and 3 billion tons of oil move through the U.S. seaports. Millions of truck-sized cargo containers are offloaded on to U.S. docks.
As a part of the homeland security authorization bill, the House took some important steps to improve the screening of cargo by expanding the container security initiative and refocusing it based on risk. But the truth is that not every container can be inspected, and we need to use other tools at our disposal to deter and punish those who would use our seaports as a point of attack. I urge support for the amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov