SEAPORT SECURITY HEARINGS SCHEDULED

SEAPORT SECURITY HEARINGS SCHEDULED    U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Chairman John Breaux, D-La., will hold three special “field hearings” this week in the Southeast and Gulf to discuss seaport security.
   The first hearing will be held at the Port Everglades Auditorium in Florida Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., and will cover seaport and passenger ship security. Witnesses include Phil Allen, interim director of Port Everglades; Charles Towsley, director of the Port of Miami; Rear Adm. Jay Carmichael, commanders of the Coast Guard’s Seventh District; Thomas S. Winkowski, acting director for Customs’ Office of Field Operation in South Florida; John M. Bulger, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Miami District; and Anthony Zagami, president and chief executive officer of Security Identification Systems Corp.
   The second hearing will be held at the Port of New Orleans Auditorium Thursday at 1:30 p.m., and will cover seaport security, law enforcement coordination, and vessel piloting. Witnesses include Rear Adm. Roy Casto, commander of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District; Leticia Moran, field operations director for Customs’ Gulf management center; Johnny R. Back, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol; Gary LaGrange, director of Port of New Orleans; Robert S. Hecker, superintendent for the Harbor Police Department; Kenneth W. Kaiser, special agent in charge for the FBI in New Orleans; Capt. Douglas J. Grubbs of the Crescent River Pilots Association; and Channing Hayden, president of the Steamship Association of Louisiana.
      The third hearing will be held at the University of Houston Law Center on Jan. 11 at 1:30 p.m., and will cover seaport security, cargo inspection and hazardous materials transportation. Witnesses include Vice Adm. Thad Allen, commander of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area; Robert S. Trotter, Custom’s director of field operations for East Texas; Tom Kornegay, executive director of the Houston Port Authority; Frank Fogarty, vice president of P&O Ports Texas; Jack Woodrick, president of Texas Chemical Council; and Sam Pipkin, chairman of Channel Industries Mutual Aid.