The Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act was signed into law at a White House ceremony last week. Congress passed the legislation on September 30, 2006 by a vote of 409 to 2 in the House of Representatives and by Unanimous Consent in the Senate after months of work by both chambers of Congress to develop legislation that effectively enhances the multi-layered, risk-based cargo security system the U.S. government has developed since 9/11.
“All Americans can celebrate the signing of the SAFE Port Act into law,” said Retail Industry Leaders Association senior vice president Paul Kelly. “This comprehensive cargo chain security legislation is now the law of the land thanks to months of hard work by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, who worked with private sector stakeholders to develop comprehensive legislation that builds on the current supply chain security system.”
Kelly concluded, “Retail Industry Leaders Association also congratulates members of the Supply Chain Security Coalition for their successful efforts to encourage Congress to pass legislation that enhances the multi-layered, risk assessment approach currently used by the Department of Homeland Security and which has worked to keep U.S. ports safe for the last several years.” The Coalition represents some of the largest and most knowledgeable stakeholders in the supply chain system, including the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA).
“This new law strikes a good balance between addressing security needs and ensuring that legitimate cargo can continue to flow freely through our ports without impeding commerce or the economy,” National Retail Federation Vice President and International Trade Counsel Erik Autor said. “American retailers include some of the nation's largest shippers and strongly support security initiatives to safeguard our country from the introduction of dangerous weapons and persons while also protecting retailers' supply chains and brand names.”
“A key part of this measure is a strong pilot program to build a more comprehensive system for scanning cargo containers rather than jumping immediately into a 100 percent scanning mandate for foreign ports that would have snarled retail supply chains and possibly increased security problems rather than minimizing risks,” Autor said. “One hundred percent scanning is currently operationally infeasible, technically unreliable and would cause unacceptably high economic costs and disruptions to the economy while offering no real improvement to the nation's cargo security system. This pilot program will allow the reliability, effectiveness and safety of scanning technology to be thoroughly tested so that an appropriate scanning system can be established at the appropriate time.”
Among other provisions, the bill would establish a $400 million annual port security grant program, codify existing port security programs such as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and require the Homeland Security Department to develop plans for resuming trade in the event of an attack on ports.
