Congress OKs major ports security bill

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - Congress approved a major ports security bill early Saturday, providing new steps to prevent terrorists from slipping a nuclear, chemical or biological device into one of the 11 million shipping containers entering the nation every year.

Passage of the bill was the last act of the House as lawmakers left for a five-week election campaign during which candidates will be trying to prove to voters their commitment to keeping America safe in the war on terrorism. The Senate passed it by a voice vote, sending it to the president for his signature.

Containers, now largely uninspected, "have the potential to be the Trojan Horse of the 21st century," said Sen. Susan Collins (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She said the legislation would be a "major leap ahead" in strengthening national security.

Democrats favored the bill, but said it failed to address rail and mass transit, other areas considered highly vulnerable to terrorist attack.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060930/ap_on_go_co/ports_security

[fasttense]

1. And it failed to address UEA ownership of our ports.

How can the GOP be concerned about national security when they sell off our port operations to the royals of a country that laundered money for the 9/11 attack?

[TomInTib]

5. They cannot undo that deal.

For many reasons.

Bush would veto any bill addressing that concern.

DPW is there to stay and has been for quite some time.

[acmejack]

2. The republiclown house leader struck everything dealing with rail security

in the dark of night, infuriating the both sides of the Senate and the House Democrats, but other than endangering everyone who lives near a rail line or is one of the millions who rides commuter rail to work every day, it is a fabulous bill.

[gulfcoastliberal]

3. Did Ted Stevens sneak his shit rider on the bill?

I can't recall what it was/is but I read about it yesterday.

[Eugene]

4. The phone company shield didn't make it

but the internet gambling ban apparently did according to this AP article:

Ports security bill clears passes Congress, goes to president

[twilasue]

6. They finally got their Anti-online gambling victory

All they had to do was be their dirty rotten sneaky selves to get it done:



U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist last night (Friday) carried out his promise to attach his anti-online gambling measure to any "must pass" legislation available, regardless of relevancy.

After having earlier attempts to attach the measure to defence bills rebuffed, the Senator focused on the Port Security Bill and through some adroit political manouevreing and negotiation managed to attach a compromise measure and thus include it in voting by the House. The compromise measure focused mainly on hampering online gambling financial channels, and dropped amendments to the Wire Act 1961 itself.

Proceedings went on into the early hours of this (Saturday) morning, ending when the vote went overwhelmingly in favour of the Port Security Bill, which carried the compromise internet gaming measure through on its skirts despite reservations by several politicians.

The Port Security Bill and its attachments will now go forward to a voice vote in the Senate, after which bureaucratic process and the President's signature are believed to be the only delays in bringing it to law.

Changes to the Bill, as well as the attachment of the internet gambling provisions, angered some Democrats, who helped craft the original port security legislation but were largely blocked from the final negotiations. The Senate had overwhelmingly approved the authorization of $3.5 billion for mass-transit security grants and $1 billion for freight and passenger rail programs, but House Republicans balked at the cost.

"If Republicans leave town stripping out all the sections protecting major sectors of out transportation sector, God help us if there's an attack," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), whose home-state casinos are split over the Internet gambling measure, briefly weighed scuttling the bill over the provision before agreeing to go along, aides said.

Senate Republican and Democratic leaders announced it would be passed by voice vote after the House's late-night vote.

The online gambling measure, a blend of earlier measures passed by the House and Senate, would make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites, however, it falls short of adding clarity to a 1961 federal law banning interstate telephone betting also covers an array of online gambling.

The banking industry has been insistent that the legislation adds impractical and costly burdens that it may not be capable of carrying , and has already claimed that it would not have any way of monitoring the use of electronic checks for the purposes of betting online.

The banking sector has voiced strong opposition to provisions that require banks to block electronic funds transfers or e-check payments to online gambling sites. These provisions are essentially broad and unenforceable, the banks claim; moreover, even if it were possible to surmount technical obstacles, prospective gamblers could easily use alternative means to finance such transactions.

Frist chose his free ride well. Port security advanced as an issue in Congress this year after an outcry over the Bush administration's decision to allow an Arab company, Dubai Ports World, to buy major U.S. port assets. There were attempts on Friday to add other unrelated amendments, but apart from the Internet gambling provisions, the others were rejected, a top House leadership aide said.

Those rejected included an attempt to shield telephone companies from liability for privacy violations if they supply the U.S. government with access to customer records. This idea came from Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican sources said.

"Our bill is slimming down and I'm very pleased with the port security portions," said Rep. Dan Lungren, a California Republican and one of the key negotiators on the legislation. But he said lawmakers had considered tacking other pieces of legislation onto the port security bill to try to get them through Congress this year. Bills that are expected to pass, like the ports bill, "become like magnets, they attract a lot of stuff," Lungren explained.

Another proposed add-on, from Senator Dennis Hastert that was rejected would have tightened security at courthouses and stiffened penalties for attacks on judges.

Language that would have added billions more for rail and mass transit security had been stripped out of the port security bill earlier, lawmakers and their aides said. So was language to lift a cap on federal airport security screeners.

The heart of the port security bill deals with cargo container security. Only a fraction of the millions of containers that enter U.S. ports each year are inspected. That has prompted warnings that sea cargo remains a serious security risk, five years after the September 11 attacks.

The issue languished in Congress until earlier this year when lawmakers said they had security concerns Dubai Ports World's acquisitions at six major U.S. ports. To quell the uproar, the company said it would sell the port assets.

The ports bill requires the government to finish installing radiation-screening equipment at 22 major U.S. ports, which handle 98 percent of all containers, by the end of 2007.

It also sets up a pilot program at three foreign ports to test the feasibility of scanning cargo headed for the United States while it is still overseas.

Intense political negotiating preceded the run-up to the voting late on Friday night, with House and Senate negotiators pushing hard to get the legislation approved before heading home this weekend to campaign for November congressional elections in which national security has become a key issue.

Before the voting, Frist claimed: “Gambling is a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams, and frays the fabric of society. Congress has grappled with this issue for 10 years, and during that time we’ve watched this shadow industry explode.

“For me as majority leader, the bottom line is simple: Internet gambling is illegal. Although we can’t monitor every online gambler or regulate offshore gambling, we can police the financial institutions that disregard our laws.”

The anti-ban Poker Players' Alliance again made a concerted last minute effort to head off the "stealth" introduction of the anti-online gambling measure, circulating members and the media with a last minute appeal to contact their political representatives and protest any ban.

Democrats had accused Republicans of pushing the bill to placate its conservative base, particularly the religious right, in advance of the November 7 elections.

"It's been over 10 years in the making. The enforcement provisions provided by this bill will go a long way to stop these illegal online operations," one of the bill's key backers, Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican of Arizona, said in a statement.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa