Official outlines pursuit of 'smart' border, container plans

Technology improvements will help the United States protect its borders while still maintaining the country's sense of openness, a Homeland Security Department official said Thursday.

"We're pursuing smart border initiatives," Robert Bonner, commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection Bureau (CBP), told the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. "Rather than seeking to physically inspect 23 million containers each year, which would be tantamount to closing the borders and shutting our economy, [the bureau identifies] high-risk containers using state-of-the-art technologies."

The bureau has requested about $340 million in spending increases for fiscal 2005, including $15 million for its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. The 5,900 companies participating in that initiative are offered an expedited process at U.S. ports if they cooperate with U.S. authorities via the partnership, Bonner said.

Minnesotan Martin Olav Sabo, the ranking Democrat on the panel, expressed concern that proposed funding is too low. "Tremendous border security holes remain," he said, pushing for "better technology to help CBP identify criminals who should be apprehended and turned away from our borders."

The bureau probably could spend only an additional $10 or $20 per container and get adequate security, Bonner said.

By the end of the fiscal year, Bonner expects to add eight to 10 more seaports to the bureau's overseas Container Security Initiative, where U.S. officials attempt a "layered defense" and travel abroad to check cargo before it leaves foreign ports bound for America. "A total of 34 foreign seaports ... have agreed to join with us, and ... we're also working with some other governments [that might] adopt container security initially."

The bureau is "taking steps to develop and implement a smarter container that would be used along the supply chain," Bonner said, mentioning an automated device that would indicate if a container has been subjected to tampering. "We're not there yet, but we are moving forward. Right now we have a somewhat smarter container."

The bureau does not have a definite number on how many containers are inspected, but "our job is to ramp up, on a targeted basis [the] number and percentage" of cargo inspected, Bonner said. The goal is not to uncover mass amounts of dangerous cargo but to deter groups like the al Qaeda terrorist network from exploiting cargo containers, he said.