RILA praises defeat of cargo scanning amendment

RILA praises defeat of cargo scanning amendment    The Retail Industry Leaders Association praised the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee for rejecting, by a 18-16 vote, an amendment to the SAFE Ports Act (H.R. 4954) sponsored by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
   The amendment would have mandated the use of unproven technologies to “scan” every container in a foreign port, as well as the use of “high tech” container seals.
   “The Retail Industry Leaders Association congratulates the House Homeland Security Committee for defeating efforts to amend the SAFE Ports Act that would have required adoption of unproven technologies and untested procedures in the cargo container screening process,” RILA Senior Vice President Paul Kelly said in a statement. “This amendment would have essentially mandated the use of technologies whose time has not yet come, and forced the implementation of systems that contain a host of unresolved operational issues.
   “Any legislation should build upon the effective multi-layered system approach the U.S. has developed over many years, RILA said in a press release,” Kelly continued. “Before any technology can be mandated, the Department of Homeland Security must ensure the technology’s functionality and application,” the release said. “RILA urges the government and Congress to work with private sector users of the system to determine the best methods to deploy new technologies in order to achieve maximum results.”