Susan Collins: “what we have tried to do with this bill is very carefully balance the need for effective, improved security with the…”

“what we have tried to do with this bill is very carefully balance the need for effective, improved security with the need to ensure that we are not crippling our international trading system. We now have 11 million shipping containers coming into this country each year. This is a number that has grown substantially in recent years. We know each one has the potential to be the Trojan horse of the 21st century, to include not consumer goods but perhaps terrorists themselves, the makings of a dirty bomb, a chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapon. That is why the legislation that we have authored proposes a strong, effective, layered system of security. It focuses on the ports of origin. It focuses on each container to make sure that it is effectively evaluated, and it has a system for securing the entire supply chain that is called the C-TPAT system. The highest system of C-TPAT would be the GreenLane system, of which Senator Murray is the author. At that level, shippers would take steps to completely certify the security of their supply chain from the factory where the good is manufactured, all the way to the delivery to the retail store. Each step of the supply chain would be certified as secure. In return, those shippers or retailers that reach that highest level, the GreenLane, would be given certain benefits. Their cargo would be expedited. Their cargo would be subjected to fewer inspections.…”