House Homeland Security Committee Approves SAFE Port Act
Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee held a markup of H.R. 4954, the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act or SAFE Port Act and voted unanimously to send the bill to the full House for consideration. Among other things, the SAFE Port Act would set up procedures for restoring port operations after a terrorist attack or other catastrophic event, require the Homeland Security Department to develop standards for container seals, codify certain existing port and maritime security programs and make changes to the C-TPAT program.
During the markup, the committee adopted a Republican-backed amendment that would bar U.S. ports from accepting cargo containers from countries that do not cooperate with U.S. efforts to install nuclear and radiation detection equipment in their seaports.
The amendment was approved following the rejection of a Democratic-supported amendment that would have set deadlines for every incoming cargo container to be inspected for both radiation and cargo density to determine whether it poses a terrorist threat.The SAFE Port Act would make a number of changes to C-TPAT, including requiring a validation to be held no later than one year after a participant has been C-TPAT certified. The bill would permit "certified third parties" to valididate the security measures and supply chain security practices of the participant. In addition, the bill would require C-TPAT participants to be revalidated every three years.
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
