Subcommittee Hearing: Balancing Maritime Security and Trade Facilitation: Protecting our Ports, Increasing Commerce and Securing the Supply Chain – Part I

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security held a hearing entitled “Balancing Maritime Security and Trade Facilitation: Protecting our Ports, Increasing Commerce and Securing the Supply Chain – Part I.”  The Subcommittee met at 10:00 a.m. in 311 Cannon House Office Building.

Chairman Miller on the hearing:

“More than 11 million cargo containers arrive in America’s ports every year, which present the potential for dangerous materials being smuggled into our country through the supply chain.  We have been successful in interdicting illegal guns, money, drugs, and even people, being smuggled through cargo containers in the past, and this hearing will examine the potential for terrorists and others to manipulate our supply chains and endanger our ports.  My hearing will examine the integrity of the supply chain, the government agencies whose job it is to screen and inspect cargo to secure our ports, and how the Obama Administration’s new National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security outlines the nation’s plan to guard against these threats.”