Port Security

PORT SECURITY

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me thank my colleague from Virginia for his unfailing efforts to try to find a solution here that would solve the many different goals and needs of the situation of the purchase by Dubai Ports World of British P&O.

I believe the words that were mentioned in Mr. Bilkey's letter--I tried to write them down here--were that DP World will ``transfer fully'' to a U.S. entity.

Could I ask my colleague to yield for a question? Did I get the words exactly right? I would be happy to yield for a question. I just want to make sure I got the words right in the letter which my friend from Virginia just read--that DP World will ``transfer fully.''

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am having it duplicated, and I will hand the Senator a copy.

Mr. SCHUMER. Obviously, this is a promising development, but of course the devil is in the details. I think those of us who feel strongly about this issue believe that the U.S. part of the British company should have no connection to the United Arab Emirates or DP World, which is fully owned by the United Arab Emirates.

So therefore, we would have to examine their proposal.

The bottom line is, again, if U.S. operations are fully independent in every way, that could indeed be promising. If, on the other hand, there is still ultimate control exercised by DP World, I don't think our goals will be accomplished. Obviously, we will need to study this agreement carefully.

I again thank my colleague from Virginia for his unstinting efforts, like everything he does, to try to come up with a fair and reasonable compromise.

In the meantime, I urge my colleagues to join in voting against cloture at this point in time. Obviously, the vote occurs at 2 o'clock, and this brief statement by Mr. Edward Bilkey is something which has to be studied.

At this point in time, the amendment I have offered, along with so many of my colleagues on this side of the aisle, should remain in play.

I make a couple of points about that. First, I believe strongly in ethics reform. I believe this Senate can do both at once, ethics reform and deal with the Dubai issue. They are not mutually exclusive.

The bottom line is we have offered to take a few hours off ethics reform, vote on my amendment as a freestanding bill, and then go back to ethics reform. It is truly the actions of the other side--invoking cloture, refusing to let this amendment come up--if cloture is not invoked, which I believe it will not be, that will be slowing down ethics reform. It is the intention of those on this side--and I know our minority leader will speak to this--to turn to ethics reform when we can but not in exclusion, not in place of, getting a vote on this particular issue.

The bottom line is very simple. There have been too many concerns raised about DP Ports World and its views of security, its actions in regard to security. We cannot any longer play roll-the-dice. We cannot roll the dice when it comes to the security of our Nation. The way this deal was approved initially, the secret nature by which this investigation occurred--casual, cursory--is simply not good enough. We have to examine the whole issue of port security.

I have been pushing that issue for many years, ever since September 11. Hopefully, out of this sorry mess, we will look at that. In the meantime, this deal should not go through. This deal creates too many unanswered questions. To simply allow the President, who has already said he is for the deal even before the investigation is completed, to have the only and final say is wrong.

I urge a vote against cloture.

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