Debate rages over scanning mandate for incoming cargo

Although no longer in the spotlight, a congressional mandate that all cargo containers be scanned for weapons of mass destruction before they are shipped to the United States has fueled increasing debate between security advocates and business interests.

Congressional and industry officials said Monday they are anxiously awaiting a report from the Homeland Security Department on its pilot programs at foreign ports to scan 100 percent of the U.S.-bound cargo containers there.

The report was supposed to be delivered to Congress last month, said Denise Krepp, senior counsel for House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

She said the report is likely to be delivered in June. Thompson led a controversial effort last year to include a mandate in a massive homeland security bill that requires all U.S.-bound cargo containers to be scanned at foreign ports by 2012.

Homeland Security Department officials are examining the cost and feasibility of meeting the 100 percent scanning requirement at six foreign ports.

Debate over cargo security erupted in 2006 after the Bush administration approved the now-defunct deal to have Dubai Ports World take over the management of major U.S. port operations. Although the public spotlight has faded, advocates and opponents of the mandate appeared as entrenched as ever during a panel discussion Monday at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Former Republican Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, who also served as a senior Homeland Security official, said the upcoming report from Homeland Security on the test programs will be critical. "It will tell us the measure of success in the pilots," said Hutchinson, who also heads the Safe Commerce Coalition, an industry association that opposes the 100 percent scanning mandate. He expressed the view that no legitimate case has been made for the mandate. Instead, he said the U.S. government should use intelligence and shipping information to determine which containers pose high risks, and scan only those.

Michal Freedhoff, senior policy associate for House Global Warming Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., said she hopes the department report will include an assessment of how 100 percent scanning might create economic benefits, such as by helping to detect and deter smuggling activity.

Markey, who sits on the Homeland Security Committee, worked with Thompson to write the mandate into law. Freedhoff also said the cost to meet the mandate could be as low as $20 per container, adding that each container carries about $66,000 worth of goods using their retail value. Krepp and Freedhoff did not rule out the possibility that Congress might change or eliminate the mandate before 2012, but they said much more information is needed on the issue before making any determination.

"We have to see what's in that report," Krepp said.