9/11 Bill Contains Little-Known Provisions
l Terrorism grants for the risky: The House bill picks up on an issue that has stoked disagreement between the House and the Senate for years by enshrining a bill originally passed into law in 2005 by the House Homeland Security Committee. That measure would have lowered the share of homeland security grants guaranteed to each state to just 0.25 percent of the total funding pot–with 0.45 percent guaranteed for border states. That would have left 90 percent of the roughly $2 billion in annual homeland security grants to be divvied up according to risk. The Senate favored higher minimal percentages in 2005 and is likely to take that tack again.
l Much more security for sea cargo: On Monday, Bennie Thompson, the incoming head of the House's Homeland Security Committee, vowed to "speed up" an already planned pilot program in which DHS will screen 100 percent of cargo headed to the United States out of three foreign ports. (Our recent story has more on that program and other port security efforts.) Once H.R. 1 passes, Democrats will give DHS three years to ensure that 100 percent of cargo headed to the United States from large foreign ports is screened before it's loaded onto ships. DHS will have five years to bring smaller ports up to that standard. Smart seals, which set off alarms if a container is tampered with at sea, will be required on cargo containers as soon as the technology becomes available.
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