Political Quotes

“5 years after the September 11th attack, our nation remains vulnerable to an attack, an attack that could come through our ports. Our maritime system consists of more than 300 sea and river ports with more than 3,700 cargo and passenger terminals nationwide. Additionally, thousands of shipments to the United States originate in the ports of nations that may harbor terrorists. Although Customs and Border Protection analyzes cargo and other information to target specific shipments for closer inspection, it still physically inspects only a small fraction of the containers under its purview. We cannot allow the threat that our current port security system allows to continue. Terrorists have already attacked our Nation once. There is every reason to believe that they will try again--possibly with a weapon of mass destruction; a weapon that could be smuggled into our ports. That is why I support the three tiered approach H.R. 4954, the ``SAFE Port Act of 2006'' takes to address port security. We must secure our ports and the containers that travel through them at home, abroad and in transit to the United States. H.R. 4954 takes important strides to accomplish this by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to deploy nuclear and radiological detection systems at 22 important seaports by the end of FY07. Additionally, this legislation puts an emphasis on training--a key component to readiness.…”