Maritime Border Security Review Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KATKO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5869) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a maritime border threat analysis, and for other purposes, as amended.

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5869, the Maritime Border Security Review Act, sponsored by the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon), my friend and colleague.

With increasing focus on the threats at the southwest border, we must be mindful that our adversaries can and will adapt as they seek to gain entry into our homeland. As illicit pathways are squeezed on the southwest border, the Nation's maritime border is a likely alternative route for our adversaries to utilize.

The brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard are responsible for patrolling our Nation's maritime border, conducting counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations, as well as search and rescue missions to ensure the safety and legitimacy of travel and trade in the maritime environment.

The Coast Guard also interdicts and often rescues migrants who are attempting to reach the United States not only from the Caribbean and Latin American region but, as recent cases have indicated, from countries outside the Western Hemisphere, including China, India, Pakistan, and Jordan.

Cocaine is one of the most highly trafficked drugs throughout the maritime border, especially in the transit zone, a 7-million-square- mile area that includes the sea corridors of the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the eastern Pacific Ocean. I know that firsthand from the time I spent for 2 years in the mid-nineties prosecuting international drug organizations in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Coast Guard interdicts thousands of pounds of cocaine every year; though, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General, only about 8.2 percent of the total cocaine flow through the transit zone was interdicted in fiscal year 2017.

Unfortunately, we currently do not have the resources to turn back or interdict all the threats in the maritime environment. To make matters worse, the devastating effects of the 2017 hurricane season diminished local law enforcement operational capabilities and resources available to combat maritime-based threats in the U.S. territories, putting further strain on our Federal law enforcement agents and officers.

Many of the hurricane-affected areas are still not back to pre- hurricane conditions. Under this environment, by the time a threat reaches our coastal waters, it is too easy to slip into the country and often too late, from a law enforcement standpoint, to intercept that threat.

H.R. 5869 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a threat analysis of the greater U.S. maritime border, to include the territorial waters of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands as well as the transit zone. The bill requires the examination of terrorist and criminal threats posed by individuals and groups seeking to enter the U.S. through the maritime border.

The bill also requires the Secretary to identify vulnerabilities in law, policy, and cooperation between State, territorial, and local law enforcement, and it asks the Secretary to review the impact of the geographic challenges of the maritime border and of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Nate on general border security activities related to the maritime border.

The Maritime Border Security Review Act is a necessary and timely piece of legislation, and I want to thank the gentlewoman from Puerto Rico for introducing it.

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