Conference Report on H.R. 4954, Safe Port Act

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4954, SAFE PORT ACT -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2006)

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Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Thompson, for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in regards to the conference report to accompany H.R. 4954, the SAFE Port Act.

As representative of the Port of Boston--I'm pleased that today's conference report takes important steps towards better safeguarding our Nation's 361 sea and river ports--through the authorization of significant increases in port security grants for each of fiscal years 2007 through 2012, meaningful port worker security training provisions, and substantive container screening and scanning improvements.

At the same time, I must say that I'm disappointed that the agreement under consideration does not include the language to strenghten rail and transit security passed by the U.S. Senate during its consideration of port security legislation.

By including language to authorize $1.2 billion for freight and passenger rail security as well as $3.5 billion for mass transit security in a ports bill, the Senate clearly recognized that rail and mass transit have also been grossly underfunded, this in the face of repeated terrorist attacks against rail and transit systems worldwide--from Paris, Tokyo, and Moscow to Madrid, London, and most recently, Mumbai.

In furtherance of the Senate's action, just yesterday the House passed a motion to instruct the House conferees to accept the Senate's position on rail and mass transit security by a margin of 281-140. Regrettably however, the rail and transit language did not make it into this conference report.

Mr. Speaker, while this agreement is a good start towards securing our seaports and the international supply chain, I think we've missed a major opportunity to afford rail and transit similar respect.

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