Bush touts homeland-security plan
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush is touting his plan to create a Department of Homeland Security as he raises campaign money for a vulnerable House Republican in northern New Jersey. The proposed department would bring together several agencies responsible for keeping dangerous cargo out of the nation’s ports. The president was touring Port Elizabeth, N.J., Monday to drive that message home and whip up support for his plan, now before Congress.
Together, Port Elizabeth and nearby Port Newark form the largest seaport on the East Coast, moving more cargo than anywhere else on the Atlantic coasts of North or South America.
But an overwhelmed Customs Service can search only 2 percent to 3 percent of the 3,500 containers that arrive daily at the New Jersey ports and neighboring facilities in Brooklyn and Staten Island, N.Y., from foreign ports, before they are loaded onto trucks or trains for delivery nationwide.
Last week, the administration announced $92.3 million in federal grants to ports around the nation to enhance security.
One New Jersey company keenly watching the president’s visit was Advent Inc., which has developed technology for the onboard scanning of cargo containers for radioactive or biological substances and instant transmission of results to a central database. “Containers are one of the greatest weaknesses in our country’s defense against the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction,” said company president Carl D’Emilio.
While in the Garden State, Bush also was saluting local Port Authority workers who helped respond to the attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan on Sept. 11.
He and Vice President Dick Cheney crossed the $100 million mark last week for fund-raisers they have headlined, and both opened the new week on the money trail again.
The president was expected to raise about $1 million for Rep. Mike Ferguson, R-N.J., a freshman in a competitive race to hold his seat. By talking about domestic security, Bush was able to split the cost of the fund-raising trip between taxpayers and the Republican Party.
Cheney, meanwhile, planned to be in Portland, Ore., Monday, raising cash for GOP Sen. Gordon Smith, whose seat has also been targeted by Democrats.