Security and Accountability for Every Port Act
SECURITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EVERY PORT ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 04, 2006)
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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman.
This bill has a fatal flaw. It relies upon paperwork checks. If you went to the airport with your bags, showed up, showed the person your ticket and your ID, and then the person just waived you on to the plane with another 150 people and all the bags went on as well, with no scanning, no screening, you would sit petrified in your seat.
Well, that is what is going to happen, unless the recommittal motion which Mr. Nadler and I are going to make later on today is in fact voted upon successfully.
The Republican leadership has refused to allow a debate on 100 percent screening of cargo containers coming into the United States.
Now, why is that important? It is important because of all of the unsecured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union that al Qaeda can purchase, take to a port in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and then, with a piece of paper and an ID, waive on a 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 pound container and, with the nuclear bomb inside of it, send that ship, that container, right to a port in the United States, to New York, to Boston, to California, to any other city in America, without being screened.
President Kennedy took on the Soviet Union technologically in the 1960s. He put a man on the moon in 8 years. The Republicans are saying they can't figure out in 8 years, 8 years, from 2001 to 2009, how to screen cargo containers coming into the United States and how to put tamper-proof seals on them, knowing that al Qaeda has said that bringing a nuclear weapon into the United States is their highest goal, to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.
So this vote that we have later on today will decide whether or not this fatal flaw in the Republican bill is allowed to stand, if the Bush administration is allowed to turn a blind eye to the number one threat that al Qaeda poses to our country.
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Mr. MARKEY. I thank the gentleman from New York for his great leadership on this issue.
This recommital motion deals with the fatal flaw in the Republican bill. They have refused to allow a vote on this House floor on this issue. This is now the time for the Members to go on record to get real about cargo security.
The threat is that, in the former Soviet Union, with all of the loose nuclear material, that al Qaeda purchases a nuclear device, brings it to a port in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, places it upon a ship. Using the screening which the Republican party supports, the screening would be a piece of paper. Oh, you look okay. You can bring it on to the ship. No inspection, no scanning. That is what their bill does.
The Democratic substitute says that no container can be placed on a ship coming to the United States which is not scanned for uranium, for nuclear materials, for a nuclear bomb, for weapons of mass destruction.
The screening must be done overseas, and we must seal those containers. We must scan and seal overseas so that we do not have to duck and cover here in the United States. That is the risk that al Qaeda has said they pose to us at the very top of their terrorist target list.
The Republicans are basically saying they are going to put a ``Beware of Dog'' sign out on the lawn but not purchase a dog, never do the screening, never do the inspection, use a paperwork inspection instead.
This bill has a loophole big enough to drive a cargo container filled with nuclear weapons material through it. This is an historic moment.
Here is the seal which the Republicans are still approving to be placed upon a cargo container. This can be cut by a child's scissors, ladies and gentlemen.
This is what should be placed upon each one of the containers after they have been scanned, after they have been sealed, to make sure that if it is tampered with an electronic signal goes to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Republican party says no. The Republican party says they will use paperwork instead of real, physical scanning of each and every cargo container, knowing that it could have a nuclear weapon, knowing that these nuclear materials have not been secured in the former Soviet Union.
Vote ``aye'' on the recommital motion and protect the security of our country from the single greatest threat that is posed to it. Vote ``aye'' on the recommital motion.
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