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PORT SECURITY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to report on some of the progress we have made in our effort to secure our Nation's ports and our cargo container system.

This morning, I testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act which I introduced last year with Senators COLLINS, COLEMAN, and LIEBERMAN. That critical and effective bill is on the fast track both in the House and in the Senate.

While that hearing was starting, we received another urgent reminder of why we need to improve our cargo security in this Nation. This morning, this very morning at the Port of Seattle, 21 Chinese nationals were discovered. They had been smuggled into the United States in a cargo container. That incident is a stark remainder that we today are still not doing enough to keep our cargo container system secure. This appears to have been a case of human smuggling, but that cargo container could have been filled with anything from a dirty bomb to a cell of terrorists. Today our country is vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Time is not on our side.

I will spend a few minutes this afternoon outlining the threat and explaining how our legislation helps. By using cargo containers, terrorists can deliver a one-two punch to our country. The first punch would create an untold number of American casualties. The second punch would bring our economy to a halt.

Cargo containers carry the building blocks of our economy, but they can also carry the deadly tools of a terror attack. Today we are not doing enough to keep America safe.

In the Senate it can feel as though the dangers at our ports are millions of miles away, but in recent years some in our Government have said they could never have imagined the devastation caused by recent disasters.

Let me make this crystal clear. On March 21, 2 weeks ago, a container ship called the Hyundai Fortune was traveling off the coast of Yemen when an explosion occurred in the rear of that ship. Here is a photo of what happened next. About 90 containers were blown off the side of the ship, creating a debris field 5 miles long. Thankfully, there were few fatalities and the crew was rescued. They are still investigating the cause. It does not appear at this time to be terrorist related.

Imagine this same burning ship sitting a few feet from our shores in New York, or Puget Sound, off the coast of Los Angeles, Charleston, Miami, Portland, Delaware Bay, or the Gulf of Mexico. Imagine we are not just dealing with a conventional explosion but we are dealing with a dirty bomb that has exploded on America's shore. Let me walk through what would happen next.

First, there would be an immediate loss of life. Many of our ports are located in or near major cities. If there was a nuclear device exploded at a major port, up to a million people could be killed. If this was a chemical weapon exploding in Seattle, the chemical plume could contaminate our rail system, Interstate 5, Sea-Tac Airport, not to mention our entire downtown business and residential areas. At the port there would immediately be a lot of confusion. People would try to contain the fire. But it is unclear today who, if anyone, would be in charge.

Then, when word spreads that it is a dirty bomb, panic is likely to set in and there would be chaos as first responders try to react and people who live in the area try to flee.

Next, our Government would shut down every port in America to make sure there were not any other bombs or any other containers in any one of our cities. That shutdown would be the equivalent of driving our economy right into a brick wall and it could even spark a global recession. Day by day we would be feeling the painful economic impact of such an attack. American factories would not be able to get the supplies they needed. They would have to shut their doors and lay off workers. Stores across our country would not be able to get the products they need to stock their shelves.

In 2002, we saw what a closure of just a few ports on the west coast could do. It could cost our economy about $1 billion a day. Now, imagine if we shut down all of our ports. One study concluded that if U.S. ports were shut down for just 12 days, it would cost $58 billion.

Next, we would soon realize we have no plan for resuming trade after an attack--no protocol for what would be searched, what would be allowed in, or even who would be in charge. There would be a mad scramble to create a new system in a crisis atmosphere.

Eventually, we would begin the slow process of manually inspecting all the cargo that is waiting to enter the U.S. ports. One report has found it could take as long as 4 months to get it all inspected and moving again.

Finally, we would have to set up a new regime for port security. I can bet you that any new rushed plan would not balance strong security with efficient trade.

The scenario I just outlined could happen tomorrow. We are not prepared. Nearly 5 years after September 11, we still have not closed a major loophole that threatens our lives and our economy. Time is not on our side. We must act.

I approach this as someone who understands the importance of both improving security and maintaining the flow of commerce. My home State of Washington is the most trade-dependent State in the Nation. We know what is at stake if there were an incident at one of our ports. That is why I wrote and funded Operation Safe Commerce, to help us find where we are vulnerable and to evaluate the best security practices. It is why I have worked to boost funding for the Coast Guard and have fought to keep the Port Security Grant Program from being eliminated year after year.

Right after 9/11, I started talking with security and trade experts to find out what we need to be doing to both improve security and to keep our commerce flowing. Ten months ago, I sought out Senator Collins as a partner in this effort. I approached Senator Collins because I knew she cared about this issue. I knew she had done a lot of work on it already, and I knew she was someone who would get things done. Since that day, we have worked hand in hand to develop a bill and move it forward. I am very grateful to Senator Lieberman and Senator Coleman for their tremendous work on this issue as well.

The GreenLane Act, which we had a hearing on this morning, recognizes two facts: We must protect our country and we must keep our trade flowing.

We know we are vulnerable. Terrorists have many opportunities to introduce deadly cargo into a container. It could be tampered with any time from when it leaves a foreign factory overseas to when it arrives at a consolidation warehouse and moves to a foreign port. It could be tampered with while it is en route to the United States.

There are several dangers. I outlined what would happen if terrorists exploded a container in one of our ports. But they could as easily use cargo containers to transport weapons or personnel into the United States to launch an attack anywhere on American soil.

The programs we have in place today are totally inadequate. Last May, thanks to the insistence of Senators COLLINS and COLEMAN, the Government Accountability Office found that C-TPAT was not checking to see if companies were doing what they promised in their security plans.

Even when U.S. Customs inspectors do find something suspicious at a foreign port, they cannot today force that container to be inspected. So we have a clear and deadly threat. We know current programs are inadequate. The question is, what are we going to do about it? We could manually inspect every container, but that would cripple our economy.

The real challenge here is to make trade more secure without slowing it to a crawl. That is why Senators COLLINS, COLEMAN, LIEBERMAN, and I have been working with the stakeholders and experts to strike the right balance. The result is the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act. That bill provides a comprehensive blueprint for how we can improve security while we keep trade efficient.

At its very heart, this challenge is about keeping the good things about trade--speed and efficiency--without being vulnerable to the bad things about trade--the potential for terrorists to use our engines of commerce.

Our bill does five things.

First, it creates tough, new standards for all cargo. Today we do not have any standards for cargo security.

Secondly, it creates what we call the GreenLane option, which will provide an even higher level of security. Companies that join it have to follow the higher standards of the GreenLane cargo. Their cargo would be essentially tracked and monitored from the moment it leaves a factory floor overseas until it reaches the United States. We will know everywhere that cargo has been. We will know every person who has touched it. And we will know if it has been tampered with. The GreenLane essentially pushes our borders out by conducting inspections overseas before cargo is ever loaded onto a ship bound for the United States. We provide incentives for companies to use the highest standards of GreenLane.

Third, our bill sets up a plan to resume trade quickly and safely, to minimize the impact on our economy.

Fourth, our bill will secure our ports here at home by funding port security grants at $400 million.

And, finally, our bill will hold DHS accountable for improving cargo security. DHS is long overdue in establishing cargo security standards and transportation worker credentials. We need to hold DHS accountable, and our bill provides that infrastructure to ensure accountability and coordination.

I thank all of our cosponsors and our partners. I especially thank Senator Collins for her tremendous leadership. She chaired the hearing this morning, and her expertise and her commitment were clear to everyone in the hearing room.

I also thank Senator Coleman for his leadership and his work as chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senator Coleman has helped expose our vulnerabilities and has worked to develop solutions.

I also thank Senator Lieberman for his leadership and support. I commend our cosponsors, including SENATORS FEINSTEIN, SNOWE, and DEWINE.

I would add, we are also beginning to see progress on the House side with the SAFE Port Act. I thank Representatives DAN LUNGREN and JANE HARMAN for their leadership on that side.

Today we have a choice in how we deal with cargo security challenges facing us. But if we wait for a disaster, our choices are going to be much starker. Let's make the changes now, on our terms, before there is a deadly incident. Let us not wait until a terrorist incident strikes again to protect our people and our economy.

Two months ago, the people of America woke up and spoke out when they heard that a foreign government-owned company could be running our ports. That sparked a critical debate. Now we need to set up a security regime that will actually make us safer. Until we do so, none of us should sleep well at night. A terrible image such as this one--a burning container ship with a dirty bomb in one of America's harbors--could be on our TV screens tomorrow. So this Congress must act today.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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