Cargo Scanning Provisions

January 10, 2007 by Splatty  
Filed under Security, Supply Chain Management

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Finally some sanity on the topic of scanning every single U.S. bound container at the port of origin.  Many members of congress have been lobbying for a bill that would require all U.S. bound containers to be scanned prior to entrance into U.S. ports.  According to an article from the Dow Jones, The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) took exception on Tuesday to a proposed U.S. House of Representatives Bill by saying that:

“The Administration has serious concerns with several of the bill’s provisions and cannot support House passage of the bill in its current form,” the Office of Management and Budget warned in a Statement of Administration Policy.

The bill, part of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., 100-hour legislative agenda, would redirect some Homeland Security funds, as well as ramp up cargo screening. Within five years, all shipping containers heading to the U.S. would have to be scanned before loading at foreign ports.

“Such a requirement is neither executable nor feasible,” OMB said.

According to the report the OMD also took exception with the mandate that all air cargo must be inspected as well.

“Technology does not currently exist that would allow for physical inspection of all air cargo at the level of screening of passenger-checked baggage without impeding the legitimate flow of commerce,” OMB said. “Imposition of this requirement would likely result in the shifting of all cargo shipping away from passenger airlines; a step that we should consider taking only if the layered defenses put in place are not working – a premise with which we disagree.”

Obviously securing our ports against any type of terrorist threat is extremely important to the livelihood of our country; however, scanning all inbound cargo could potentially bring our economy to a halt.  There has to be more thought given to possible alternatives.

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