Take port security. Currently, only two percent of the cargo that arrives on American shores is inspected. You’re about fifty times more likely to have your luggage inspected at the airport than that guy with a 10-ton container is at the docks. We all know that stowaway terrorists, explosives and even nuclear weapons can be smuggled in by sea, and that we need to do something about it. The president himself said earlier this year that “We’re working hard to make sure… that the port is safer. The Customs Service is working with overseas ports and shippers to improve its knowledge of container shipments.”
That sounds reassuring, but the details of what is actually happening are not. Congress took action last year, authorizing “such sums as necessary” to enhance port security. The best estimate of what is necessary, according to a consensus by industry and security experts, is $700 million minimum. Over the objections of Democrats, Congress has provided only $250 million for the ports, 35 percent less than originally authorized. In August, Bush vetoed a bill that would have placed Customs officials in foreign ports, to help check the cargo before it’s shipped.
Some critics argue that even $700 million is far too stingy, given the threat. For another half a billion, every cargo shipment could be checked with a Geiger counter (about the size of a pager), which detects radioactivity from nuclear materials. There are some false positives – the potassium in bananas, for instance, can set off the meter. But port officials say those obstacles can be overcome. Wouldn’t you feel better if someone passed a Geiger counter over the cargo that comes into our ports? Bush and Mitchell Daniels are unconvinced. It’s not that they have a study saying it doesn’t make sense. They just don’t want to spend the money.
Border security is another example. Congress authorized funding for 200 additional Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors and 200 new INS investigators. Again, it sounds like a no-brainer; the agency is a mess, it’s true, but that’s mostly because it is overwhelmed. No one who has looked at the INS ever said it didn’t need more inspectors and investigators on the ground. But the president’s proposed “continuing resolution” doesn’t fund them.
What’s a “continuing resolution”? It’s a crutch that Congress has used in recent years to keep the government open when the parties can’t agree on actual appropriations of money. It kicks the hard spending choices down the road. That may have been fine pre-September 11, but this year’s government-by-continuing resolution is a dangerous game. The longer we delay in making much-needed security improvements, the more vulnerable we become. The Republican continuing resolution delays $800 million for bioterrorism prevention (money that was requested immediately after September 11) and $3.5 billion for emergency rescue teams and other first responders.
We already know that the administration is in no particular hurry on homeland security, especially if it can be exploited politically. In early 2001, a commission chaired by former Sens. Gary Hart and Warren Rudman issued a report calling for the creation of a Department of Homeland Security. It was largely ignored until after September 11, when Democrats and a few Republicans pushed for a new, Cabinet-level department, and the White House was adamantly opposed. For nine months after September 11, Bush continued his opposition, before adopting the Hart-Rudman idea as his own. Then, this fall, the parties disagreed over how easy it should be to fire employees of the new department. I happened to think the GOP was right on this one, and the Democrats wrong for carrying the water of the government employees unions. But the fact remains that when Sen. John Breaux, a conservative Democrat, offered a reasonable compromise, the White House rejected it. Bush preferred to use the issue politically (to devastating effect in Georgia, where Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his re-election bid, was accused of delaying the department) rather than get the thing done. After delaying for months, he had the nerve to attack Democrats like Cleland for delaying. And it worked.
Since the election, the logjam has been broken and a new Department of Homeland Security will be in place soon. That’s good news. But the money to fund the programs of the new department is still hung up in continuing resolutions, and is too stingy to begin with. The blame for that–and for the overall slowness of our efforts to secure this country–rests mostly with President Bush.
