link to Washington Times article here.
Commentary: See a trend here? Yet more privatization of key public infrastructure. Seems EVERYTHING is for sale, and that there is seemingly no end to the public infrastructure politicians are willing to privatize at the expense of national security and the public good. As long as the good ol’ boy BIG MONEY interests get their pay-offs, our politicians seem to think all is well in the world. Shutting out and ignoring the grassroots will NOT work and in fact, will BACKFIRE! No one is opposed to contracting with private companies when there’s efficiency, transparency, oversight, and competition, but Americans have well-founded concerns and even outrage when our limited public infrastructure is handed over to private companies for commercial gain. Taxpayers can’t go build another highway if we don’t like how Cintra or some other foreign company tolls us. Highways are the responsibility of government not private contractors who have profit as their motive. Highways, ports, cargo inspection, and airport management SHOULD NOT BE OUTSOURCED!
Whether it’s toll roads, ports, cargo, highways, or airports, foreign companies are buying up control of America through control of our commerce and major trade routes. If these companies control our commerce, they control America and can bring us to our knees. Giving foreign entities 50-99 year monopolistic sweetheart deals, kept secret from the public, with no cap on rates and no oversight by any elected official (like Governor Perry and our Legislature is doing on toll road contracts) isn’t American, Capitalism, or free market…it’s highway robbery and the citizens of this GREAT REPUBLIC will not sit idly by and allow it to happen! It’s time for the President, Congress and our Texas politicians to get their priorities straight. If we’re so mismanaging our hard-earned tax money that we can’t hire proper personnel to oversee puboic infrastructure and national security, then they don’t deserve to hold office. Look no further than the $295 BILLION highway bill Bush signed last summer with 6,000 earmarks for congressional pet projects that have little to do with maintaining or improving needed highways. Between that and other pork-laden bills, we’re clearly paying enough taxes, what we have is a spending problem which lies at the feet of our politicians. To our weak, lobby-friendly, easily purchased politicians: get your priorities straight and house in order or we’ll do it for you! Thank God we have elections this fall to ensure that they do!
U.S. eyes privatizing cargo security work
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 21, 2006
Homeland Security officials are looking to have private companies validate the security procedures under which cargo travels from foreign ports into U.S. terminals.
The program, which would give speedier entry to U.S. ports to ships and suppliers that meet the security standards, is now in the hands of 80 Homeland Security inspectors who have to plow through more than 10,000 applicants.
Although Homeland Security plans to hire an additional 40 inspectors in the coming months, the department also is looking to outsource to private companies some of its duties, in particular the validation process, which has dragged for years and involves on-site inspections of ships and cargo abroad.
More than 5,800 companies currently get some shortcuts by being “certified.” But only 1,545 have been “validated” to receive the full benefits of the program after first-hand inspections, such as fewer on-site checks at U.S. ports, said Jayson P. Ahern, assistant commissioner of field operations for Customs and Border Protection.
Mr. Ahern says the manpower shortage has the department exploring other options, including contracting the work to the private sector.
“I am not happy where our progress has been,” Mr. Ahern told a House panel last week.
The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) was initiated after the September 11 attacks to secure the cargo chain from port to port. Companies that open their doors to full security inspections get fewer checks at ports of arrival and faster processing.
Although critical of the program’s sluggish pace, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, California Democrat, endorsed the idea of outsourcing.
“We are relying on companies that we haven’t even gone out to check to see if in fact they have the security things in place that you said they had,” says Miss Sanchez, ranking member of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on economic security, infrastructure protection and cybersecurity.
“I mean, you have 80 people that can’t possibly check these 10,000 companies. What about having somebody else check them?” said Miss Sanchez, who formally asked the agency to consider privatizing the work.
“We have, to this point, resisted the notion of third-party validators. We think it is a responsibility that we should be doing in the government, and not necessarily contracting it out. However, given the current situation … we want to have more parties involved with a trusted program. We want to have the largest corporations in the industry, the importers reaching back to their suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, putting levels of security in place throughout the supply chain,” Mr. Ahern said.
“So perhaps we are coming to a point in time where, in certain environments with certain countries that may not be of a significant risk, maybe [using] the third-party validator has a [place] for us. So we are going to be evaluating that with new eyes, but to this point we have been opposed to it,” Mr. Ahern said.
Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for CBP, said yesterday that her agency is looking at the prospect of hiring third parties to validate security.
“At this point, the only thing we will say is that we will look at it, but we have not started a formal process. We don’t have the resources to complete the validation necessary or that Congress wants,” Mrs. Trevino said.
Last March, the Government Accountability Office criticized the program and cited weaknesses in the validation process, which it said “is not rigorous enough to achieve its stated purpose, which is to ensure that the security procedures outlined in members’ security profiles are reliable, accurate and effective.”
As of Nov. 2, 2004, more than 7,300 applications had been filed. Of them, 4,153 had been certified and slightly more than 400 validated. Almost 3,000 applications have since been filed.
Peter Tirschwell, publisher of the Journal of Commerce, called the Homeland Security idea an “outsourcing of security.”
“They exist in a commercial environment to facilitate commercial transactions. Something as important as our national security, asking them to perform what is a government role — it’s hard to see how that could be successful,” he said.
The move comes on the heels of furor over a plan for a Dubai company to operate terminals in six U.S. ports. Asked whether the current mood against foreign companies operating in matters of national security might affect this proposal, Mr. Tirschwell said, “I think it would not be looked at favorably.”
Seth Stodder, former director of policy and planning for Customs and Border Protection, said private validation firms can serve as a “force multiplier” but the final responsibility has to lie with the government.
“The devil’s always in the details, but in the abstract, I think it’s a good idea to help CBP get more validators out there, and that’s critical,” said Mr. Stodder, who works with the lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
“There is a need to step up validation and make it faster, but there are hurdles to think about when using third parties — training and management, vetting employees,” Mr. Stodder said.