Presented with the opportunity to implement real port security, Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee today opted instead to back out, voting down an amendment to scan 100 percent of American-bound shipping containers for radiological weapons.

The amendment, offered by Congressman Ed Markey, is based on the S.O.S Act, written by Congressman Nadler, Leader Pelosi, and Congressman James Oberstar, and is identical to an amendment passed by Congressman Nadler in the House Transportation Committee earlier this month.  Wal-Mart and other big businesses have been lobbying against 100-percent scanning, alleging that it will slow their massive import operations.

Nadler, Markey, Leader Pelosi, and Congressman Oberstar have led the Democratic push to adopt 100-percent scanning, contending that the only real threat to commerce is the chance that a nuclear weapon could be smuggled into an American port.

“The Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee showed their cards today in rejecting the Markey Amendment,” Congressman Nadler said. “They’d rather look after big business than shore up security at our ports.  It’s clear that we won’t be safe until we know the contents of every container that ships for our ports.  If this Congressional Majority is unwilling to make 100-percent scanning our policy, so be it.  Democrats will.”

“Today, House Republicans turned their backs on the lessons at the heart of the 9/11 tragedy,” Congressman Markey said.  “They struck down an amendment which would close a dangerous loophole that remains in our port security by blocking my amendment which would provide 100-percent scanning of all cargo containers before they arrive at U.S. ports.  The time to act is now, not after Al Qaeda sneaks a nuclear weapon into an American city by exploiting this glaring loophole.  This nearly party line vote was a victory for powerful special interests over the security of the American public.”

The amendment was offered to H.R. 4954, a bill to enhance funding for scanning of so-called high-risk containers, but that would, in practice, allow a great many containers to enter the United States without first being scanned – a continuation of the very problem that Americans want corrected.