Coast Guard expects facilities, vessels to meet deadline

A top Coast Guard official said on Wednesday that he expects most of the facilities and vessels required to submit security plans and gain approval of them from the Coast Guard will meet a July 1 deadline for improving security at the nation's ports and waterways.

"I think on July 1 we'll be in pretty darn good shape," Rear Adm. Larry Hereth, the Coast Guard's director of port security, told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard Subcommittee during a hearing on implementing a 2004 maritime security law. Hereth said he is "more confident on the vessel side" than on the facilities side that most will meet the deadline for gaining approval and implementing their security plans.

Of the 3,200 port facilities covered by the law, Hereth said nearly 1,300 have submitted and had their security plans approved by the Coast Guard. About 1,800 other facilities have submitted their plans and are awaiting approval, while about 75 have failed to submit plans at all.

Hereth said he only expects a "modest" number of facilities will be closed for not complying by the deadline. Despite concerns from some subcommittee members, he also insisted that the Coast Guard has enough funding to implement the law.

Hereth voiced concern about a provision in a House-passed bill to authorize Coast Guard programs. The language would require foreign vessels to submit security plans for review and approval by the Coast Guard. He said the agency believes it is more important to board foreign vessels to verify required security measures than to review "unverified paperwork."

The Coast Guard currently is accepting the foreign-vessel security plans approved by security organizations sanctioned by the International Maritime Organization. Subcommittee ranking Democrat Bob Filner of California criticized the practice and questioned why the "country would feel safer with plans approved by foreign governments."

Filner and other lawmakers also expressed concern that some empty cargo containers are not being checked upon entry to U.S. ports and echoed worries from dock workers who say they are being told not to check the seals on some containers presumably checked overseas. Hereth said both empty containers and seals should be checked.

Michael Mitre, director of port security for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told the panel that it is one thing for the Coast Guard to say empty containers and seals should be checked but asked, "Will the Coast Guard insist that [they] be checked?"