Last month, the federal government denied all funding for port security in the Ocean State for the 2006 fiscal year. The Department of Homeland Security also slashed total state homeland security funding to $7 million, down from $21 million two years ago, according to Leo Messier, director of the Providence Emergency Management Agency. Less than $800,000 will go to the City of Providence, which operates a port that receives hundreds of ships each year.
"This year was such a drop-off in homeland security funding," Messier said. "We were fortunate for the money we did get."
According to the American Association of Port Authorities, 99 percent of all cargo sent out and brought into the United States travels through American seaports, and the other 1 percent of goods travels by air. U.S. port authorities have received over $800 million in federal assistance since the passage of the Port Security and Maritime Transportation Security acts after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but that amount is roughly 20 percent of total funding requested and less than 4 percent of the homeland security funding U.S. airports receive.
"Unfortunately, as is so often the case, there are simply not enough federal resources to meet our needs," wrote Democratic District 2 U.S. Rep. James Langevin in an e-mail to The Herald through his press secretary, Joy Fox.
These words come on the heels of Congress' overwhelming passage of the SAFE Port Act on Sept. 30, which requires the nation's 22 largest ports to screen cargo containers for radioactive material. The act authorizes $400 million in port security grants, but the new risk-based formula leaves Rhode Island without federal assistance for port security.
"This year, there was widespread confusion and disappointment in the implementation of the new risk formula - implementation that resulted in drastic funding cuts not only to Rhode Island, but even to what are arguably the two highest-risk locations in the country - New York City and Washington, D.C.," wrote Langevin, who is the ranking member on the House Subcommittee for the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack.
Local law enforcement agencies, local governments and private companies request Department of Homeland Security grant money through state emergency management agencies. The Department of Homeland Security is currently in its sixth round of grants.
"Every year (getting homeland security funding) is sort of a struggle," said Rele Abiade, communications director for Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty, who chairs the state's Emergency Management Advisory Council.
Abiade called the DHS's new risk-based formula "horrible."
According to Abiade, Rhode Island received over $4.5 million in federal assistance for port security in the years before the 2006 fund freeze.
Steve Curtis, director of operations for ProvPort, a private company that owns 100 acres of land and a six-vessel pier at the Port of Providence, said, "Since every terminal was starting at zero (counter-terrorism security) from 9/11, that federal grant money was really beneficial to obtain critical infrastructure."
According to Curtis, ProvPort handles 50 percent of the city's seaport traffic and 70 percent of all foreign vessels docking at the Port of Providence. ProvPort succeeded in winning grants in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Curtis said without the federal assistance, ProvPort would have been hindered economically and could not have built the critical infrastructure necessary to beef up security.
Curtis supports the DHS's switch to a risk-based formula for awarding grants.
"The government threw a bunch of money out. Then they had to ask themselves, 'God, did the money actually go where it was supposed to go?'" Curtis said. "The government is trying to be more responsible."
According to Curtis, ProvPort has adequate private resources to fund port security and is not directly affected by the change.
The SAFE Port Act provides $144 million for the ongoing Container Security Initiative, which is run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection - a national agency within the DHS.
"Customs and Border Protection has all the technology we need to do the job we need to do," said Ted Woo, chief of public affairs for the Boston CBP Field Office.
Every container entering the Port of Providence is scanned by a radiation portal monitor, Woo said. Providence also deploys mobile X-ray trucks, but these multi-million dollar vehicles are not used on all containers, and the Port of Providence has no bomb-sniffing dogs.
Woo said X-raying and inspecting every container would bring the economy to a standstill. "One of our (Customs and Border Protection) goals is to facilitate legitimate trade and travel," Woo said. On a typical day, 69,000 cargo containers enter the United States.
Asked if Rhode Island's current security measures could thwart an attack, Roy Nash, captain of the port and commander of the Southeastern New England Sector of the U.S. Coast Guard, said, "We hope so. There's vulnerabilities out there - you don't have to look far to see where your vulnerabilities are."
Langevin agreed that Rhode Island's ports "remain extremely porous, leaving our homeland vulnerable to catastrophes."
Since the 2002 passage of the Port Security and Maritime Transportation Security acts, U.S. Customs officials have been dispatched to ports in 46 countries to verify documents before cargo makes it onto ships. According to Woo, those ports account for 85 percent of cargo that ultimately enters the United States.
Rhode Island port security is "absolutely" ready to thwart a terrorist attack, Woo said.
In addition to efforts aimed at preventing instruments of terrorism from entering the country through sea-faring cargo containers, dockworkers face increased background checks and requirement of documentation. Some union officials allege these changes encourage abuse of the port security system.
"All port security has done is make it harder on us," said John Lopes, president of the International Longshoremen Association Local 1329. He added, "Existing authorities don't work with us."
According to Lopes, dockworkers had their pictures and other personal information catalogued but were assured this information would not lead to "hassle from outside authorities." However, Lopes said, state troopers monitor who is on payroll and pull them off a ship if they have outstanding child support payments, overdue parking tickets or missed court dates.
The House-Senate conference committee on the SAFE Port Act removed an amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., calling for a seven-year waiting period before individuals charged with felony murder, identity fraud, bribery or illegal firearms use can be employed at U.S. ports.
Though politicians often tout port security as a bipartisan effort to protect America from terrorism - only two Congressmen voted against the SAFE Port Act - the hotly contested Rhode Island Senate race has called into question past votes on port security funding by Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75.
A recent ad by Democratic Senatorial candidate Sheldon Whitehouse alleges Chafee voted six times against increasing port security funding. In an e-mail from his press secretary, Debra Rich, Chafee told The Herald, "In all six votes cited by Mr. Whitehouse, I was joined by Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., in opposing these phony amendments that were not (authorized by Congress) because they did not provide real solutions to our nation's very real security concerns."
