Admin boosts port security; dispute over OMB nomination resolved

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announced Thursday the department would fully fund a pilot program aimed at securing cargo containers entering U.S. seaports.

Department officials had planned to divert about $28 million in funding from the government-industry research and development program called Operation Safe Commerce to cover airport security cost overruns. Congress had authorized $58 million in funding for the program this year.

The move to divert funds from Operation Safe Commerce angered Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who, in protest, on May 14 put a hold on President Bush's nomination of Clay Johnson to be deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget. Murray lifted the hold on Johnson's nomination Wednesday night after receiving a letter from Ridge assuring her Operation Safe Commerce would be fully funded.

The cargo security program is designed to tap emerging technologies to prevent tampering with vulnerable shipping containers along the way from their overseas origins to their destinations in the United States. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington, Los Angeles and Long Beach in California, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey are participating in the pilot program.

Todd Webster, a spokesman for Murray, said, "She's delighted the administration is finally releasing the funds Congress has made such a high priority over the last two years."

The Transportation Security Administration, which is part of Homeland Security and administers the program, will soon release the first $30 million for the program, said TSA spokesman Brian Turmail. The remaining $28 million will likely be released within the next two months, he said.

In addition to fully funding Operation Safe Commerce, Ridge said Homeland Security will expand its Container Security Initiative, a cooperative program with foreign port authorities to identify and search high-risk cargo before it departs foreign ports. Under the program, which initially targeted the top 20 "megaports" that handle 68 percent of all cargo destined for U.S. seaports, U.S. Customs officers have been deployed to eight foreign ports and 19 have signed declarations of principle supporting the program. Now the program will be expanded to ports in the Middle East, Turkey and Malaysia.

Also, the department will release $170 million in 199 grants to state and local governments and private industry for shoring up security at U.S. ports. The largest grant, for $13,467,015, will go to CITGO Petroleum Corp. in Lake Charles, La.

TSA's Turmail said each grant will be administered according to a series of benchmarks outlined in each grant application. While he couldn't immediately comment on the purpose of the CITGO grant, he noted that the system of ports in Southern Louisiana handled 462 tons of cargo last year, making the system the busiest in the United States and the third busiest in the world.