WASHINGTON, DC– Today U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democrat serving on the House Homeland Security, today announced his plan to offer an amendment to ensure 100% inspection of all cargo containers before they arrive at U.S. ports. The Markey amendment, which will be offered when the Homeland Security Committee marks up H.R. 4954 “Safe Ports” bill, would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure that containers heading for ports in the U.S. have been inspected using radiation and X-ray detectors, before they are loaded onto boats headed for this country.  When Rep. Markey offered a similar amendment during the Subcommittee markup, it was defeated on a straight party line vote.  Americans United has launched nationwide television ads and a grassroots campaign to organize citizens around closing this homeland security loophole, which permits approximately 95 percent of maritime cargo to be shipped to the U.S. without ever being inspected.

“We do not have a choice.  We MUST screen everything BEFORE it reaches our shores, not after it arrives.  The alarming reality is that only about 5% of all containers coming into our ports are inspected, and only 1% of containers leaving ports overseas undergo radiation detection. Public outrage sunk the Dubai deal, but massive port security loopholes persist, and they continue to put our country at risk of another terrorist attack.  I hope the Republican Party won’t choose to put the interests of private industry ahead of the security concerns of millions of Americans,” said Rep. Markey.

“It is easy to imagine an Al Qaeda operative getting a hold of enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) to make a nuclear weapon from the Former Soviet Union, where thousands of nuclear weapons’ worth of HEU is stored - often with inadequate or no security safeguards.  We know that terrorists are seeking to use U.S. ports as a route to launch a devastating nuclear attack on U.S. soil.  We also know that the terrorists know how to exploit our maritime shipping system to sneak people or weapons into the country.  In fact, one of the Millennium bomb plotters entered the United States through the Port of Boston and disembarked at the LNG terminal in my district in Everett on a path toward an attempted bombing of buildings on the West Coast.  Cargo containers represent a cheap, deadly method for delivering weapons of mass destruction on U.S. soil – we cannot afford to be lax in our oversight of the shipping and handling of these containers.”

The Markey Amendment to protect America’s ports would require the following:

• Within 3 years of enactment, the Department of Homeland Security must ensure that the only containers that can enter the U.S. from larger ports have been inspected both for radiation and using X-rays before the containers are loaded onto boats headed for this country.  Smaller ports are given 5 years to comply; and
• The Department of Homeland Security must also ensure that tamper-proof seals are placed on each container, and that if the seals are tampered with they will send an alarm to the Department of Homeland Security before the boat enters U.S. waters.

The technology to conduct this container screening exists – and is routinely used both at the port of Hong Kong and at the port of Boston to screen high volumes of inbound cargo.  Even shipping industry representatives who oppose Rep. Markey’s efforts to require 100% inspection of cargo calculate the cost of inspecting each container would to be up to $125 – insignificant homeland security investment compared to the average $66,000 value of the goods shipped in each container.

For more information on Rep. Markey’s effort to require 100% inspection of maritime cargo overseas before it is shipped to our country, check out: http://markey.house.gov/