WASHINGTON—Judge Michael Chertoff, the Bush Administration’s choice to head the Department of Homeland Security, told a Senate committee reviewing his nomination that a “disciplined” approach to “identifying and prioritizing” the protection of critical infrastructure vulnerable to terrorist attack meant not neglecting the country’s ports and harbors.

“My general philosophy on all of these issues of protecting our vulnerable infrastructure is to be disciplined about identifying and prioritizing, so that we're not spending all of our effort on one type of infrastructure, for example, aviation, and neglecting other parts such as ports and cargo,” Chertoff said Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Committee chair Sen. Susan Collins, R.-Maine, zeroed in on port security at the hearing, saying it ranked high on her list of homeland security concerns.

“Judge, one of the greatest challenges that I believe that you will face is strengthening the security of our ports,” Collins said. “This is an area that I do believe has not received the attention it deserves, nor the funding that is needed.

“The Coast Guard, for example, has estimated that implementing the Maritime Transportation Security Act would cost $7.3 billion over 10 years,” Collins added. “Yet, in the current fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security will distribute only $150 million in port security grants. That's a huge gap.

“And that's a major step forward, believe it or not. That was the first budget in which there was funding that exceeded $100 million.”

Chertoff responded that he was “acutely aware -- because I also come from a state which has major ports -- of how important the issue of ports are from a standpoint of our security.”

In answers to a list of written questions from the committee, Chertoff told the committee that he believed that DHS’s port security grant should be re-oriented to address threats of weapons of mass destruction being transported in sea containers.

Chertoff also pledged to eliminate duplicative grant program efforts and to ensure that resources would go to enhance both ports and the regions around them.

DHS has “already … taken steps forward in terms of the screening and inspection of cargo,” Chertoff said.. “I know the Coast Guard has taken steps to improve port security, but I know we have a lot left to do.”

Collins noted that she had recently visited the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which “alone handle some 43 percent of all the containers coming into the country.”

“Just a couple of days after I left, an alert crane operator spotted 32 Chinese nationals in two separate containers who had been smuggled into the country,” Collins added. “That really concerns me, because if the smugglers of the illegal aliens know to use the container system, then surely Al Qaida has identified that as a possible means of smuggling an Al Qaida cell into our country.

“And despite all the high-tech cameras and other surveillance techniques and the department's screening programs, none of those caught these illegal Chinese citizens. It was, in fact, an alert crane operator,” she added.

“What does that say about the effectiveness of the programs that we have now to ensure that containers have cargo that is harmless to our country and important to our commerce rather than containing threats to our country, such as the makings of a dirty bomb, or even terrorists themselves?” Collins asked.

Chertoff responded that he “shared” Collins’ concerns about the report, but did not know all the facts concerning the incident.

“Seems to me these are opportunities to learn,” he added. “We need to go back and see what this tells us about something that we're not doing, and then we ought to make adjustments.

“And one of the things I would hope to do, if confirmed, is to set about finding out with respect to this and other instances what the lesson is.”

Collins reiterated the “great concern” of several committee members regarding the U.S. Coast Guard’s “Deep Water” recapitalization program.

“I've met with Coast Guard officials in Maine and California who have told me of cutters that are not able to be deployed because of maintenance problems, of helicopters that have had near-misses because of their age,” Collins said. “And it's obvious that the legacy assets of the Coast Guard are deteriorating rapidly.

“If you add to that the fact that the Coast Guard's responsibilities and operations since 9/11 have increased by 25 percent without a corresponding increase in personnel and equipment, we are putting tremendous strain on the Coast Guard,” she noted..

“If you talk to the Coast Guard men and women out along our ports, you really will see a dangerous and deteriorating situation,” Collins concluded.

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