just a few short weeks before the DUBAI/US port security crap erupted, the Bushco was doing this...
Feb. 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Association of Port Authorities held a news conference this week to express concerns about the U.S. Administration's recommended changes to port security grants.
Kurt Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), and Bernard Groseclose, president and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, said that similar to last year, the U.S. President's 2007 budget proposal recommends lumping the security infrastructure needs of seaports with those of trains, trucks, buses and other public transit into a new and consolidated Targeted Infrastructure Protection program (TIP).
"The federal share of the seaport facility security funding partnership needs to be increased, not reprogrammed and diluted," said Nagle. "Another top federal priority should be to adequately fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep the nation's deep-draft channel maintenance projects on schedule. Simply put, we believe all authorized channel projects with positive benefit-cost ratios should be maintained at their authorized project depths."
Since its inception in 2002, the Port Security Grant program has provided much-needed support to address immediate security needs and assessments. But federal money allocated in the first five rounds of the program – about $708 million – accounted for only about one-fifth of what seaports identified as needs, said AAPA, which has urged the Administration and Congress to annually fund the program at the $400 million level. AAPA also urges DHS to allow all U.S. port facilities that handle international cargo to be eligible to apply for port security grant assistance.
more...
http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=52405&issue=02082006