DHS eagerly awaits COAC container security recommendations

DHS eagerly awaits COAC container security recommendations    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is focused on integrating several cargo security programs to make sure they work in tandem without overlapping.
   The department is placing top priority on the work of a maritime security working group of the Customs and Border Protection Advisory Committe on Commercial Operations (COAC). The group was established in April and has six months to come up with a series of recommendations. The subcommittee’s first order of business is to develop performance standards for secure intermodal containers.
   “I can’t emphasize how seriously this work is being taken” at the highest levels of DHS, Assistant Secretary Steward Verdery, told the panel. DHS finds the issue of container security so important that, depending on what’s in the subcommittee’s final report, the department may assemble COAC for an interim meeting before the next scheduled meeting in September, Verdery said.