Don Young: “My colleagues and Mr. and Mrs. America, this is primarily a political gesture without a great deal of result, and that…”

“My colleagues and Mr. and Mrs. America, this is primarily a political gesture without a great deal of result, and that is unfortunate. The hearings are necessary, especially in cargo screening. It has been shown to us that the cargo screening port security cannot occur within our ports themselves without total cooperation from the overseas shippers to the United States. What we are asking in this bill is expenditure of huge dollars for really window dressing and not results. As the gentleman from Florida said, we are not really in this legislation as being proposed giving us any more security. We are expending dollars in the billions in the airports, and it will be in the billions in the ports and the waterways of our Nation. And the direct result will be, and keep this in mind, Mr. and Mrs. America, a direct cost to you without any security. Every product, everything you pick up that is imported to the United States will add an additional cost, and it may make us noncompetitive.”