WASHINGTON – The $3.26 million in federal funds that the Port of Baltimore got to boost security efforts last June is “an important first step,” but officials say it does not begin to address their long-term security needs.
And while Maryland Port Administration and U.S. Customs Service officials are confident they will get more money in fiscal 2003, they worry about the timing, as elections approach and Congress debates a new Department of Homeland Security.
“We don’t know what will happen. They (Congress) have got a lot of work to do,” said Customs spokesman Dean Boyd. “Unfortunately, we’re all kind of waiting to see how it shakes out.”
After the attacks of Sept. 11, Baltimore got $3.26 million for port security as part of a supplemental defense allocation in December 2001. Port spokeswoman Judi Scioli said authorities doubled the police patrol, increased security at entrance gates and added guard dogs and radiation scanners for inspecting cargo, as it shifted its focus from theft to terrorism.
Before Sept. 11, Scioli said, port security “really meant theft, the passage of illegal cargo like drugs and immigrants, and making sure expensive cargo like Mercedes weren’t stolen.”
“Sept. 11 catapulted us and shifted the meaning of security. We had to anticipate and prevent acts of terror,” Scioli said. “Now, this is sort of the new normal.”
But much more is necessary to maintain high levels of security, she said. Baltimore got about 4 percent of the emergency grant money provided for maritime security last year, compared to about 10 percent for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Not only does the port want the latest technology, Scioli said, but also ways to better utilize existing equipment. She said the port could allot funds to new lighting techniques, tracking devices for cargo and possibly better short-term storage techniques.
“We’re looking at capturing any technological advances that can be applied to port security,” she said.
While the MPA has beefed up security on the docks, the Customs Service is taking steps to improve security offshore.
Customs is training officers in Central Asia and Eastern Europe to detect smuggled material before it heads here, and it is putting more inspectors at international ports.
Boyd would not discuss measures specific to Baltimore, but said the agency is taking measures nationally to “keep weapons out of the bad guys’ hands.” Domestic ports have also received hand-held radiation scanners, fixed radiation detection systems and 200 X-ray vans for imports.
“We’re beefing up nationwide,” Boyd said. “There is no border system that’s foolproof, but we’re doing what we can.”
Both Scioli and Boyd said they expect increased funding in 2003, with Scioli saying Baltimore hopes to get a share of the $100 million allotted to port security in the Transportation appropriations bill that is now awaiting Senate approval.
The Bush administration asked for $2.3 billion for Customs next year, down from the $2.4 billion in the current budget. The Senate Appropriations Committee has proposed boosting Customs’ budget to $2.5 billion.
“It boils down to what Congress does, then it has to be approved by the president,” Boyd said.
But President Bush last year blocked a 2002 supplemental budget pushed by the Senate that would have included $125 million in port security grants.
“I’m extremely disappointed that President Bush has refused to spend the port security money Congress appropriated,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said in a prepared statement Friday. Mikulski, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Transportation, vowed to continue pushing for greater funding.
Scioli said she has full confidence in Mikulski’s efforts, but worries that the security level the port runs at now can only cover short-term needs and could start to wane.
“It requires money to make sure you can keep up the proper level of alert and of course we’re all concerned,” Scioli said. “We need to have that money available.”