Senate conferees propose cargo fees for port security
Hoping to break the logjam in a House and Senate conference on seaport security, Senate aides are circulating a proposal to impose user fees on cargo coming into and out of U.S. ports to help pay for increased costs for security equipment and personnel that ports have faced since last Sept. 11.
The draft, obtained by CongressDaily, has been informally shared with House Republican aides, who had objected earlier to a more comprehensive Senate proposal on grounds it would have amounted to a tax on shippers. Senate aides have requested a formal meeting with their House counterparts to discuss the offer and said they hope to resolve the matter soon, possibly even this week.
The proposal would require the Transportation secretary to develop a user fee program within six months to generate at least 75 percent of the funds needed to improve port security, or implement the Senate proposal. The Senate proposal would charge fees based on the type of cargo being carried.
For example, it would charge $20 for a 20-foot container of hazardous material, $15 for a 20-foot container of non-hazardous materials, $3 per passenger and $3 per vehicle, the draft says. It would also charge different fees according to the risk posed by different types of materials. For example, dry bulk items would be charged $0.01 per metric ton, while petroleum products would be charged $0.45 per metric ton. The fees would be imposed only once per voyage, and would apply to both imports and exports.
The secretary would collect the fees and distribute them on a port-by-port basis, which would be determined by where and from whom the funds are collected as well as each port's security needs. Port authorities, waterfront facility operators, and state and local agencies providing seaport security services would have to apply to get the money, and the secretary would be given the flexibility to reassess and adjust the program annually.
The user fee issue is the remaining sticking point for the seaport security bill, which has taken on a higher profile as a nasty contract battle between shipping companies and dockworkers continues to rage, closing down every West Coast port Monday. Asked whether Congress will get a seaport security agreement this year, Senate Commerce ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., said: "You never know what can happen at the end of the session. This is another one of those things where it's hard to explain why we didn't get agreement."