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The Retail Leaders Industry Association said Tuesday it has joined other organizations representing American companies today to urge the House Homeland Security Committee to defeat efforts to amend the SAFE Ports Act (H.R. 4954) to require 'scanning' at foreign ports of all cargo destined for the United States.
RILA said in a statement that the so-called 'Sail Only if Scanned' legislation (H.R. 4899) 'would force the use of unproven technologies and untested procedures in the cargo container screening process.'
In recent days, the World Shipping Council and National Retail Federation have also decried the bill, yet it is anticipated that the legislation, which was defeated during subcommittee markup, will be reintroduced by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., during the full committee markup today.
The amendment would require every container to be scanned in a foreign port before the container is loaded on a vessel destined for the United States, as well as the use of high tech seals that can track and trace the location of the container at all times.
“The Markey amendment would essentially mandate the use of technologies whose time has not yet come,” Paul Kelly, senior vice president of federal and state government affairs for RILA, said in a statement.
“While some impressive scanning technology is currently under development, the Markey amendment mandates systems that contain a host of outstanding operational issues that need to be resolved before being made operational. The types of seals mandated in the amendment are still under development and testing and not yet 100 percent reliable — yet the amendment seeks to require the Department of Homeland Security to adopt this unproven technology within a short time frame, not to mention the required integrated information systems that simply do not yet exist,” Kelly said.
In a letter sent to every member of Congress today, RILA and 26 private sector stakeholders said the measures contained in the amendment were “unrealistic and could potentially decrease security by forcing containers to sit for extended periods of time, which would then put them at greater risk. Forcing containers to sit not only puts them at risk, but also harms those legitimate businesses who are not able to get their products to the store shelves or inputs to production to the manufacturing facilities.”
The groups call the amendment “extremely vague as to how the implementation of such a strategy will be fulfilled. Any legislation should build upon the effective layer of systems the U.S. has developed over many years. Congress should outline policies and goals and let DHS find the smartest and most effective way to meet those goals. Before any technology can be mandated, DHS must ensure the technology’s functionality and application. In addition, DHS must work with the private sector users of the system to determine the best methods to deploy new technologies in order to achieve maximum results.”
RILA membership includes more than 400 retailers, product manufacturers and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.4 trillion in annual sales, the group said, operating more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers in all 50 states.