WASHINGTON — The nation’s port authority officials want more financial help from the federal government for the rollout of a massive worker identification program that could severely disrupt global trade if not properly executed.
Facing myriad challenges, from a significant boost in cargo and intermodal traffic to congestion and infrastructure investments, some 300 port executives at the American Association of Port Authorities conference here last week also said they need assistance from Congress and the Bush administration in funding beefed-up security measures stemming from the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“The continuing challenge for ports is being torn between how they invest in the infrastructure to handle the increases in trade while making these security enhancements,” said Kurt Nagle, president and chief executive officer of the AAPA. “We think there needs to be continued federal help for local ports.”
The U.S. has 126 public seaport agencies with jurisdiction over 185 public ports. The forecast for an increase in global trade and cargo container traffic has intensified the pressure on port officials as they ramp up to meet new security mandates.
Retailers and apparel vendors imported $89.2 billion worth of clothing and textiles last year and even the slightest delay in clearing customs in a U.S. port could interrupt supply chains.
“In container trade, our forecast for growth [this year] is 8.9 percent, which is lower than the 9.6 percent we saw last year in imports,” said Paul Bingham, principal of Global Insight, who gave a presentation at the conference.
Bingham said in an interview afterward that the increase in container traffic, even at a slower pace, will continue to be a challenge for ports in the long term.
“We’re not adding infrastructure capacity as fast as we’re growing our trade volume, so we are continuing to suffer pressures that grow every year…all the way inland to our distribution centers, to be able to handle the growth in trade,” Bingham said.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing ports this year, since it could slow down traffic, is the Department of Homeland Security’s rollout of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, dubbed TWIC. The government will conduct extensive background and immigration checks of more than 750,000 port workers who, once cleared, will be required to carry a tamper-proof identification card.
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Port officials are trying to secure some federal grant funding for the card readers that will have to be installed at every gate.
The U.S. established the Port Security Grant Program in 2002 to pay for port security measures and protect them from terrorist attacks, but the nation’s port managers contend that program has been underfunded. The AAPA has reported that of the $4.34 billion that U.S. ports requested from the grant program between 2002 and 2006, only $876 million was distributed, which was below estimates made years ago about the amount of funding that ports would need to secure themselves.
“We’ve been advocating consistently since the enactment of the Maritime Transportation Security Act back in 2002 that we felt an adequate or reasonable shared responsibility between the federal government and local public port authorities is to have the federal government help with $400 million a year,” said Nagle.
Despite calls from the industry and a mandate of $400 million in security grants in the SAFE Port Act signed into law last year, the Bush administration’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2008, submitted to Congress last month, was $210 million for the Port Security Grant Program, which was the same request level in fiscal year 2007.
But in the past two weeks, Congress appears to be listening a little closer, which has buoyed the spirits of port authorities around the country.
The House Appropriations Committee has included $190 million in extra port grant money for this fiscal year in a war spending bill that would bring the total grant money to $400 million, Nagel said. The House passed the controversial war funding bill on Friday. If the bill clears the Senate and is signed by the president, it would add a total of $1.25 billion to the budget, including $400 million for ports and entry radiation detection; $515 million for prevention and response capabilities at ports, transit systems and in states, and $250 million for container and northern border security. But the war funding bill’s prospects are unclear because of the controversy over a withdrawal plan for troops in Iraq contained in the bill that was spearheaded by the Democrats.
A key Senate budget panel also passed a bill that includes $400 million for the port security grant program. The bill must still pass the full Senate and House and be signed by the president.
“There has been some good action both on the House and Senate side in the last week, and so that gives us a good feeling of success,” said Nagle.
Port executives are counting on that action to help them meet the implementation of TWIC.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff addressed the AAPA on Wednesday, the second day of the conference, and reassured port executives that the benefits of the program would be almost immediate.
“TWIC is going to have an immediate security benefit in terms of having a standard secure credential,” Chertoff said. “We recognize it’s a complicated undertaking — it takes place in a demanding operational environment. But by taking this in stages — background checks first, credentials next and then access readers third — we’ve been able to rapidly move forward while ensuring that we are carefully evaluating technology and operational impact at every step of the process.”
Chertoff’s agency will begin the rollout of TWIC cards to workers at the port of Wilmington, Del., by the end of the month. The first 10 U.S. ports must begin issuing cards by July, and the next 40 ports must begin issuing cards by next January, according to an AAPA spokesman. All other U.S. ports must begin issuing cards by January 2009, which is also the launch date for card readers.
Chertoff defended the grant-money distribution, maintaining Homeland Security has distributed more than $800 million in port security grants since Sept. 11, 2001.
He said the agency has awarded the port of New York more than $77 million to secure facilities within its area, including $18 million to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to enhance surveillance capabilities and harden facilities against attack. The agency has also awarded the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach $91 million for similar work, including $8 million to build a new command and control center that will support federal, state and local security personnel with surveillance around the clock.