Three House members are giving the Department of Homeland Security an Aug. 17 deadline for a detailed, port-by-port list of the barriers to implementing a 100-percent scanning regime.
In a letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the members ask the department to provide a detailed implementation schedule by Sept. 30.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said they were concerned about the delays in the 2007 law that sets a July 2012 deadline for all containers to be scanned at foreign ports before they are loaded aboard U.S.-bound ships. The requirement was included in a law requiring implementation of all recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission.
The provision is unpopular in DHS and has met resistance among foreign trading partners. Napolitano late last year told the Senate Commerce Committee that she was going to delay the deadline until 2014. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin told the committee the same thing on July 21 while arguing for a layered, risk-based alternative.
