Sen. Murray decries Bush administration port security funding

Sen. Murray decries Bush administration port security funding    Sen. Patty Murray, D.-Wash said the Bush administration is failing to provide sufficient funding for U.S. port security.
   Speaking at a press conference on homeland security Wednesday, Murray said Bush’s budget for fiscal year 2005 calls for spending only $100 million on port security to comply with the requirements of the Maritime Transportation Security Act, whereas the U.S. Coast Guard said estimated costs are $1.5 billion for the fiscal year and $7.3 billion over 10 years.
   “That’s just 7 percent of what Admiral Collins says we need,” Murray said, referring to the commandant of the Coast Guard. “A 7 percent security system is just not good enough.”
   “The truth about the president’s homeland security budget is that the rhetoric doesn’t match the reality,” she said. “This administration is flirting with disaster with its lack of sustained and serious attention to port security.”
   On Feb. 2, the American Association of Port Authorities expressed “great concern” that Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget lacks funds for port security. AAPA said that protecting America’s ports is “critical to the nation’s homeland security and economic vitality.”
   The association said that despite the Coast Guard's cost estimates, Congress has appropriated only $493.2 million in port security grants since Sept. 11, 2001.
   AAPA cited comments made by a U.S. Coast Guard official that a major port closure for one month due to a maritime terrorist act could cost up to $60 billion in economic loss to the United States.
   Murray also warned of dire consequences for the United States’ security and economy if ports have to be shut down.
   “If the federal government walks away and sticks our local ports and businesses with a billion-dollar bill this year, we won’t get the security we need,” Murray told the press conference.
   “We know how our economy was affected when aviation was grounded after the attacks on Sept. 11,” Murray said. “If our nation’s ports were locked down after a terrorist attack, the economic impact would be astounding.”
   “Stores in every state wouldn’t be able to stock their shelves. Businesses wouldn’t have the supplies they need. Everyone who works at or relies on our ports would be threatened. And our exports could be stuck on the docks — instead of being sold overseas,” she said.
   Murray said Bush’s budget “abandons the progress that our government, ports and shippers have worked together to achieve.”
   She also criticized the elimination in the Bush administration budget of Operation Safe Commerce, a pilot program to track maritime containers.