Pete Sessions: “Is the Senator aware that after September 11 the Customs Service signed a cooperative agreement with several foreign…”

“Is the Senator aware that after September 11 the Customs Service signed a cooperative agreement with several foreign ports because we are concerned about ports being used to ship weapons of mass destruction here, and the best way to do it is to identify that as a foreign port before it gets here--that they signed a cooperative agreement allowing our inspectors to preinspect cargo abroad before it sailed here. The Customs Service wanted to send its best agents to these ports because these are sensitive foreign assignments, and the National Treasury Employees Union objected, saying that internal union rules should determine who should be sent on these assignments, not the Customs Service managers.”