Senators seek upgrades for CSI, C-TPAT

Senators seek upgrades for CSI, C-TPAT    Sen. Susan Collins, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Monday she plans to take advantage of public concern about a Dubai company managing some port operations to push a bill that would strengthen two key cargo security programs.
   Last November, Collins and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., co-authored the Green Lane Maritime Cargo Security Act, which would provide $835 million in each of the next five years to expand the Container Security Initiative and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, provide extra funds for port security grants, create a cargo security policy office in the Department of Homeland Security and implement other measures to protect ports and cargo from terrorists.
   Collins said CSI and C-TPAT were good programs in concept that do not work well because they have been underfunded by Congress and the Bush administration.
   “We want more aggressive implementation of those programs and we are willing to back it with the funding,” she said at a press briefing on Capitol Hill. “I feel like the current uproar will build support for more congressional funding.”
   The Government Accountability Office last year reported that less than 20 percent of high-risk containers are x-ray inspected overseas by foreign governments participating in CSI. There are 42 ports that allow U.S. Customs inspectors to help target outbound shipments for inspection.
   “Our bill, by providing steady funding for that program, would allow more inspectors to be stationed overseas” to help increase the number of inspections, Collins said.
   The bill would also give additional resources to Customs and Border Protection for its C-TPAT trusted shipper program, which has been criticized for being slow to check whether companies are implementing promised security measures before they receive reductions in inspections.
   Steven Flynn, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the House Armed Services Committee last week that he believes the C-TPAT office needs to have a minimum of 500 specialists to validate companies and their suppliers around the world, five times CBP’s current capability. CBP currently has 88 supply chain security evaluators and hopes to reach its target of 156 officers this summer.
   Collins and Murray also criticized the Department of Homeland Security for trying to lump port security grants into a generic infrastructure security grant program. Their bill would provide $400 million in dedicated port security grants, as recommended by the American Association of Port Authorities.
   “DHS is just plain wrong in trying to combine all infrastructure grants in one program,” Collins said. “That could result in port security grants getting nothing.”
   Murray said port security cannot be left to individual companies and local ports who may not have the resources to deploy security systems needed to prevent an attack that could end up shutting down ports nationwide.
   Collins said she plans to have her committee vote on the cargo security bill in April.