Frank Lautenberg: “I am pleased to see us at work to complete our deliberations on this bill, but for the moment, I wish to talk about…”

“I am pleased to see us at work to complete our deliberations on this bill, but for the moment, I wish to talk about amendment No. 298 which Senator Schumer has offered to strengthen our port and container security. It builds on a law I helped write last year. It was then that I authored language in the SAFE Ports Act to require the Bush administration to scan every container entering our country, looking for weapons and contraband. My amendment called for a dramatic change in our national policy on cargo screening, but the administration was not moving fast enough. That is why it is essential that we pass today's amendment offered by Senator Schumer, which I cosponsored. The 2-mile stretch that is between Port Newark and Newark-Liberty International Airport is considered the most at-risk area in the country for a terrorist attack. This is asserted by the FBI, and it is something to which we have to pay serious attention. I served as a commissioner of the Port Authority of New Jersey and New York. I know how vulnerable a target the port region is. Our ports are the doors through which essential goods and commodities enter our national economy. They are the doors through which supplies flow to our military. Ninety-five percent of all America's imported goods arrive by ship.”