Page 10: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2001)

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Legal Beat

Port Security Legislation Reinforces Security

By James S.W. Drewry

Like so many areas of our economy since the terror- ist attacks of September 11, the port and maritime areas of the United States are being scrutinized for vulnera- bility to terrorism. Catastrophic scenarios are all too easy to imagine, and the threats can come from so many directions. To illustrate the complexity of the maritime law enforcement challenge, the Coast Guard Comman- dant, Admiral James M. Loy, posed the following hypo- thetical in an October 31 speech to the Propeller Club of the United States: "Imagine for a moment the information requirements associated with a hypothetical 6,000 TEU flag-of-con- venience container ship with a multi-national crew cob- bled together by a hiring agent who works for an Alger- ian vessel operator who chartered the vessel from a

Greek ship owner whose corporate offices are in the

Cayman Islands. "How would you begin to manage the information required to prosecute an inter-agency response to any of the various threats that might be aboard such a hypo- thetical ship — a report of a nuclear device being smug- gled, chemical or biological agents, or any of hundreds of other possibilities?"

The purpose of this article is to report on activities within the U.S. Congress aimed at shoring up security in the Nation's ports and maritime areas. At present the main port security bill is S. 1214, the Port and Maritime

Security Act of 2001, introduced by Senator Ernest F.

Hollings, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Com- merce, Science, and Transportation, which has jurisdic- tion over the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

Senator Hollings, whose hometown is the port city of

Charleston, S.C., introduced an earlier version of the bill in July of last year in response to the 1999 report of the Commission on Seaport Crime and Security. S. 1214 was reported by the Senate Commerce Commit- tee to the full Senate three days after the September 11 nightmare, and the changes to the bill since then have been considerable, with particular emphasis on dealing with the terrorist threat. As Congress left for its

Thanksgiving recess, Senators and staff were still nego- tiating changes to the bill. However, it is expected to pass the Senate before the end of this year.

Provisions in the Hollings Bill

The Hollings bill reinforces and expands upon the

Coast Guard's Maritime Domain Awareness concept, which stresses constant vigilance and collaboration among affected public and private organizations. The bill has a number of provisions to enhance the security preparedness of federal, state, and local government agencies having responsibility for seaport security, as well as private entities with a stake in secure port oper- ations. For coordination, it calls for establishing a national-level Port Security Task Force, whose mem- bers are to include representatives of the Maritime

Administration and Coast Guard, port authorities, and labor and management organizations involved in mar- itime transportation, and requires port security commit- tees for each port, with membership from governmen- tal and private entities.

Another step in preparedness under the bill is a requirement for the Secretary of Transportation to iden- tify the 50 most strategically important and economi- cally important ports in the United States. The Secre- tary would then be required to complete port security vulnerability assessments for these 50 key ports. Vul- nerability assessments would be carried out for the other 250-plus U.S. ports as well, but the greatest urgency is assigned to the top 50.

The Hollings legislation recognizes that terrorism and other threats require vigilance not only from law enforcement agencies. Under the bill the port authori- ties and private waterfront facility operators will have to develop their own maritime transportation security plans, which must be approved by the Secretary of

Transportation. These non-law enforcement plans would include provisions to impose positive access controls to vessels and facilities, to develop procedures for processing passengers, cargo, and crewmembers, and to promote security awareness among all employ- ees.

To round out the security readiness of individuals in the maritime community, the Hollings bill would: (1) establish a training and certification program for mar- itime security professionals and a Maritime Security

Institute to train these professionals, (2) direct the cre- ation of domestic and maritime safety and security teams for responding to terrorist or criminal activity, and (3) require regularly updated maritime counter-ter- rorism and incident contingency plans.

The Hollings bill recognizes that the information on port activities falls far short of what is needed for secu- rity from terrorism. One way to improve is to combine the information that is collected throughout the Federal government, but often not shared among agencies.

Thus the bill would require a maritime domain aware- ness report by the Secretary of Transportation, aimed at improving the utilization of worldwide maritime trans- portation information systems and data bases to track cargo, passengers, and crew manifests, identify suspi- cious itineraries and shipments, and identify suspected terrorists - possibly through a linked or new general data base. Likewise, the bill requires the Attorney Gen- eral to direct U.S. law enforcement agencies to modify their information databases to ensure collection and retrievability of port data.

Another way to improve information in the maritime domain is to collect more information through the use of technology. The bill provides for loan guarantees and grants for security-oriented infrastructure in U.S. ports, including the acquisition of equipment or facili- ties to be used for port security monitoring and record- ing, remote surveillance systems, and concealed video systems. Further, it authorizes $35 million per year in funding for the Customs Service to acquire non-intru- sive screening and detection equipment for use at U.S. ports.

In addition to these technological devices, the bill relies on new reporting requirements. One provision would require the Secretary of Transportation to pre- scribe regulations governing the conduct of criminal

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

With a NORMACONNECT® coupling and a torque wrench, anyone can connect high- pressure pipes in minutes — and they'll stay sealed. [ Rugged NORMACONNECT® couplings are 70% lighter than welded flange joints and take up 40% less space.

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