Patty Murray: “I rise today to report on some of the progress we have made in our effort to secure our Nation's ports and our cargo…”

“I rise today to report on some of the progress we have made in our effort to secure our Nation's ports and our cargo container system. This morning, I testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs about the GreenLane Maritime Cargo Security Act which I introduced last year with Senators Collins, Coleman, and Lieberman. That critical and effective bill is on the fast track both in the House and in the Senate. While that hearing was starting, we received another urgent reminder of why we need to improve our cargo security in this Nation. This morning, this very morning at the Port of Seattle, 21 Chinese nationals were discovered. They had been smuggled into the United States in a cargo container. That incident is a stark remainder that we today are still not doing enough to keep our cargo container system secure. This appears to have been a case of human smuggling, but that cargo container could have been filled with anything from a dirty bomb to a cell of terrorists. Today our country is vulnerable to a terrorist attack. Time is not on our side. I will spend a few minutes this afternoon outlining the threat and explaining how our legislation helps. By using cargo containers, terrorists can deliver a one-two punch to our country. The first punch would create an untold number of American casualties. The second punch would bring our economy to a halt.…”